A simple device was used throughout the entire building for decoration or design. It was a white cross.

The platform was below the level of the audience floor, and notwithstanding the tremendous size of the room, the acoustic properties were so perfect that persons farthest removed from the platform could hear any average speaker.

The prominence given the Raymond people by Jesus’s appearance there first had given them a wide interest with the general public. At the request of thousands, the delegates from Raymond were asked to sit on the platform where the multitudes might see and note them.

So it came to pass on that stupendous day, that Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell and the other Raymond friends were pointed out eagerly by the inflowing hundreds as the Hall filled.

With the Maxwells were Rachel and Rollin, Virginia and Stanton, Edward Norman and Jasper Carter side by side, Alexander Powers, Dr. West, Mr. Grey, Felicia and Stephen. And there by Mrs. Maxwell sat Martha, humble but intensely loyal, her sins forgiven and the one unspoken longing of her heart the desire to see and hear her Master once more. She had not expected to go to the Congress, but Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell had simply taken it for granted and brought her with them, to her overflowing joy.

The day was one of rare beauty. The night before, as thousands recalled afterward, had been so rarely clear that the stars over the city sparkled with a wonderful light. People in big cities do not as a rule note starlight, but the effect had been so strange and compelling that it could not be forgotten.

The first session of the Congress was to be at night. The people had come so early for fear of not being able to get in, even though many were delegates, that long before six o’clock the building was crowded to its entire capacity.

There had been a regular program of speakers and topics prepared. But in the thinking of all, there was in reality only one speaker, and that was Jesus.

The one question asked by every person once inside the Hall was, “Where is Jesus?”

No one seemed to know. He had last been known to be visiting an obscure little town in the state, but the Committee on Arrangements could not give exact details. All they knew was that he had promised to be present at the Congress, and they knew he would be, according to his promise.

By seven o’clock the entire Hall was alive with people. Softly and slowly the electric star points in the dome came out, thousands of radiations suffusing the great space over which they hung.