All that had gone before, he said, pointed to what had now actually
taken place--namely, the reconciliation of the world on a basis other
than that of Divine Truth. It was the intention of God and of His Vicars
to reconcile all men in Christ Jesus; but the corner-stone had once more
been rejected, and instead of the chaos that the pious had prophesied,
there was coming into existence a unity unlike anything known in
history. This was the more deadly from the fact that it contained so
many elements of indubitable good. War, apparently, was now extinct, and
it was not Christianity that had done it; union was now seen to be
better than disunion, and the lesson had been learned apart from the
Church. In fact, natural virtues had suddenly waxed luxuriant, and
supernatural virtues were despised. Friendliness took the place of
charity, contentment the place of hope, and knowledge the place of
faith.
Percy stopped, he had become conscious that he was preaching a kind of
sermon.
“Yes, my son,” said the kind voice. “What else?”
What else?... Very well, continued Percy, movements such as these
brought forth men, and the Man of this movement was Julian Felsenburgh.
He had accomplished a work that--apart from God--seemed miraculous. He
had broken down the eternal division between East and West, coming
himself from the continent that alone could produce such powers; he had
prevailed by sheer force of personality over the two supreme tyrants of
life--religious fanaticism and party government. His influence over the
impassive English was another miracle, yet he had also set on fire
France, Germany, and Spain. Percy here described one or two of his
little scenes, saying that it was like the vision of a god: and he
quoted freely some of the titles given to the Man by sober, unhysterical
newspapers. Felsenburgh was called the Son of Man, because he was so
pure-bred a cosmopolitan; the Saviour of the World, because he had slain
war and himself survived--even--even--here Percy’s voice faltered--even
Incarnate God, because he was the perfect representative of divine man.
The quiet, priestly face watching opposite never winced or moved; and he
went on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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