When It Was Dark: The Story of a Great ConspiracyThorne, Guy
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When It Was Dark: The Story of a Great Conspiracy
Thorne, Guy
Christian fiction; Conspiracies -- Fiction; England -- Fiction
"To-day," she said, "what I perceive we have all heard, may mean the
sudden dawning of a New Light in the world. If this stupendous statement
is true--and it bears every hall-mark of the truth even at this early
stage--a new image of Jesus of Nazareth will be for ever indelibly
graven on the hearts of mankind. That image which thought, study, and
research have already made so vivid to some of us will be common to the
world. The old, weary superstitions will vanish for all time. The real
significance of the anthropomorphic view will be clear at last. The
world will be able to realise the Real Figure as It went in and out
among Its brother men."
She spoke with extreme earnestness. No doubt she saw in this marvellous
historical confirmation of her attitude a triumph for the school of
which she had become the vocal chieftainess, that would ring and glitter
through the world of thought. The mental arrogance which had already led
this woman so far was already busy, opening a vista that had suddenly
become extremely dazzling, imminently near.
At her words there was a sudden movement of relief among the others. The
ice had been broken; formless and terrifying things assumed a shape that
could be handled, discussed. Her words acted as a precipitate, which
made analysis possible.
The lady's calm, intellectual face, with its clear eyes and smooth bands
of hair, waited with interest, but without impatience, for other views.
Canon Walke took up her challenge. His words were assured enough, but
Schuabe, listening with keen and sinister attention, detected a faint
tremble, an alarmed lack of conviction. The courtier-Churchman, with his
commanding presence, his grand manner, spoke without pedantry, but also
without real force. His language was beautifully chosen, but it had not
the ring of utter conviction, of passionate rejection of all that warred
with Faith.
A chaplain of the Court, the husband of an earl's daughter, a friend of
royal folk, a future bishop, there were those who called him
time-serving, exclusively ambitious. Schuabe realised that not here,
indeed, was the great champion of Christianity. For a brief moment the
Jew's mind flashed to a memory of the young curate at Manchester, then,
with a little shudder of dislike, he bent his attention to Canon Walke's
words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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