Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the LordAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Religion
Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Christian fiction; Jesus Christ -- Fiction
All the night long no sleep came to my eyes for musing on all the things
that I had seen and heard that day: “For this day,” said I, “is, as it
were, the birthday of the Redemption of Israel,” But when I thought
thereon, and considered with myself that I had now joined myself unto
Jesus as the Redeemer, and when I compared Jesus with the image of the
Redeemer of Sion (such as I had framed it in my mind from the reading of
the Prophets, and such as my countrymen expected), then was I as one
astonied and amazed to find myself believing in Jesus, and standing on his
side. For I had imagined unto myself one that should perchance appear,
riding on the clouds of heaven, encompassed by thousands of angels, taking
vengeance upon the enemies of Sion, according to the word of the prophet
Daniel; or else I had thought to see a royal deliverer, even such another
as David himself, mighty with the sword, riding at the head of his ten
thousands, ruling the Gentiles with a rod of iron, or breaking them in
pieces like a potter’s vessel; or else I had fashioned in my mind a
Deliverer after the manner of Elias, rebuking kings in their pride, and
calling down fire from heaven for a sign, or for the destruction of the
Gentiles.
Now before this time, I had had no leisure to consider the matter; for, in
the presence of Jesus, I had been drawn towards him as by an enchantment:
but in the stillness of the night, Jesus being no more before my face, I
thought on all the signs and wonders wrought by Moses and Elias aforetime,
and doubt fell upon me; and it seemed to me not possible that Jesus of
Nazareth could be greater than they, so as to be the Messiah. But when I
asked myself, “Could it then be that Jesus is a deceiver?” my heart made
answer, “Nay, that could not be. And if thou trust not in Jesus, there is
not any one in the world in whom thou canst trust.” So I comforted myself
in my perplexity, saying to myself, “Perchance the time hath not yet come
for Jesus to manifest himself as the son of David, nor as the Son of man
spoken of by the prophet Daniel: but doubtless that time will come; and
then shalt thou see Jesus, as the Messiah indeed, in power.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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