Cuthbert and the Phantom Fire

CUTHBERT was once addressing a crowd gathered in the street of a small Northumbrian village, when he broke off in mid flow to say:

‘Whatever happens, never let yourselves be distracted by the devil’s trickery.’

Then he resumed his sermon.

Cuthbert was still speaking when a neighbouring house burst abruptly into crackling flame. The villagers, ignoring Cuthbert’s frantic gesticulations, raced off to drench the building in water. But it seemed a most uncanny, unquenchable sort of fire. Soon the whole street was alight.

With a sigh, Cuthbert gave up trying to restrain them, and began to pray instead. And as suddenly as the roaring sheets of flame had come, they gathered themselves up and rolled indignantly away, leaving the hamlet quiet, and the dripping houses not even scorched. The whole drama had been a devilish illusion – a phantasm, a desperate ruse to break up Cuthbert’s congregation.

The shamefaced villagers drifted back, and after some words of comfort and reassurance, Cuthbert continued his preaching.