"Go home? Sergeant, you see that Man? Have you anywhere a tender place? Is there any little thing which, if you had it, would make your life brighter and more worth the living? That Man, by the utterance of a word, can make of your life one long, glad song; give you everything you are righteously ent.i.tled to deserve; so they tell me. Go home to the kennels in which we herd when the Christ who has come to release us from our bondage will not move a finger, or do aught to loose our bonds, but, seeing how we writhe in them, stands mutely by? No, sergeant. We"ll not go home till we"ve had a reckoning with Him."
He stretched out his arm, pointing at the Stranger.
"I"ll meet you at another Calvary. You"ve crucified me and mine through the ages, and would crucify us still, finding it a royal sport at which it were blasphemy to cavil. Beware lest, in return, you yourself are not crucified again."
When Walters and his a.s.sociates had gone, the sergeant said, addressing the Stranger:
"I"m only doing my duty in telling you that the sooner you clear out of this, the better it"ll be for everyone concerned. You"re getting yourself disliked in a way which may turn out nasty for you, in spite of anything we can do. There"s half a dozen people dead out in the street because of you, and there"s worse to come, so take my tip and get out the back way somewhere. Find a new address, and when you have found it keep it to yourself. We don"t want to have London turned upside down for anyone, no matter who it is."
The sergeant went. And then words came from the Stranger"s lips, as if they had been wrung from His heart; for the sweat stood on His brow:
"Father, is it, then, for this that I am come to the children that call upon My Name in this great city, where on every hand are churches built for men to worship Christ? What is this idol which they have fashioned, calling it after My Name, so that wherever I go I find a Christ which is not Me? Lord! Lord! they cry; and when the Lord comes they say, It is not you we called, but another. They deny Me to My face. The things I would they know not. In their blindness, knowing nothing, they would be G.o.ds unto themselves, making of You a plaything, the servant of their wills. As of old, they know not what they do. Aforetime, by G.o.d"s chosen people was I nailed unto a tree.
Am I again to suffer shame at the hands of those that call themselves My children? Yet, Father, let it be so if it is Your will."
CHAPTER XXII
A SEMINARY PRIEST
In the street was riot; confusion which momentarily threatened to become worse confounded. In the press were dignitaries of the Church; that Archbishop whom we met at dinner; Cardinal De Vere, whose grace of bearing ornaments the Roman establishment in England; with him a young seminary priest, one Father Nevill. The two high clerics were on a common errand. Their carriages encountering each other on the outskirts of the crowd, they had accepted the services of a friendly constable, who offered to pilot them through the excited people. At his heels they came, scarcely in the ecclesiastical state which their dignity desired.
As they neared the house they were met by the departing Mr. Walters and his friends. Recognising who they were, Walters stopped to shout at them in his stentorian tones:
"So the High Priests have come! To do reverence to their Master? To prostrate themselves at His feet in the dust, or to play the patron?
To you, perhaps, He"ll condescend; with these who, in their misery, trample each other under foot He"ll have no commerce; has not even a word with which to answer them. But you, Archbishop and Cardinal, Princes of His Most Holy Church, perhaps He"ll have a hand for each of you. For to those that have shall be given, and from those that have not shall be taken away. He"ll hardly do violence to that most excellent Christian doctrine. Tell Him how much you have that should be other men"s; maybe He"ll strip them of their skins to give you more."
The constable thrust him aside.
"Move on, there! move on! That"s enough of that nonsense!"
"Oh yes," said Walters, as they forced him back into the seething throng; "oh yes, one soon has enough of nonsense of that kind. Christ has come! G.o.d help us all!"
On the steps that led up to the door a woman fought with the police.
She was as a mad thing, screaming in her agony:
"Let me see Christ! Let me see Him! My daughter"s dead! I brought her to be healed; she"s been killed in the crowd; I want Him to bring her back to life. Let me see Christ! Let me see Him!"
They would not. Lifting her off her feet, they bore her back among the people.
"What a terrible scene!" murmured the Archbishop. "What lamentable and dangerous excitement!"
"You represent a Church, my dear Archbishop," replied the Cardinal, "which advocates the freedom of private judgment. These proceedings suggest that your advocacy may have met with even undesired success."
The Archbishop, looking about him with dubious glances, said to the policeman who had const.i.tuted himself their guide:
"This sort of thing almost makes one physically anxious. The people seem to be half beside themselves."
"You may well say that, my lord. I never saw a crowd in such a mood before; and I"ve seen a few. I hear they"ve sent for the soldiers."
"The soldiers? Dear, dear! how infinitely sad!"
When they were seen on the steps, guarded by the police, waiting for the door to open, the crowd yelled at them. The Archbishop observed to his companion:
"I"m not sure, after all, that it was wise of me to come. Sometimes it is not easy to know what to do for the best. I certainly did not expect to find myself in the midst of such a scene of popular frenzy."
Said the Cardinal:
"It at least enables us to see one phase of Protestant England."
They were admitted by Ada, to whom the Archbishop introduced himself.
"I am the Archbishop, and this is Cardinal De Vere. We have come to see the person who is the cause of all this turmoil."
Ada stopped before the open door of a room.
"This is the Lord!"
Within stood the Stranger, as one who listens to that which he desires, yet fears he will not hear: who looks for that for which he yearns, yet knows he will not see. The Archbishop fitted his gla.s.ses on his nose.
"Is this the person? Really! How very interesting! You don"t say so!"
Since the Stranger had paid no heed to their advent, the Archbishop addressed himself to Him courteously:
"Pardon me if this seems an intrusion, or if I have come at an inconvenient moment, but I have received such extraordinary accounts of your proceedings that, as head of the English Church, I felt bound to take them, to some extent, under my official cognisance."
The Stranger, looking at him, inquired:
"In your churches whom do you worship?"
"My dear sir! What an extraordinary question!"
"What idol have you fashioned which you call after My Name?"
"Idol! Really, really!"
"Why do you cry continually: "Come quickly!" when you would not I should come?"
"What very peculiar questions, betraying a complete ignorance of the merest rudiments of common knowledge! Is it possible that you are unaware that I am the head of the Christian hierarchy?"
Said the Cardinal:
"Of the English branch of the Protestant hierarchy, I think, Archbishop, you should rather put it. You are hardly the undisputed head of even that. Do your Nonconformist friends admit your primacy?
They form a not inconsiderable section of English Protestantism. When informing ignorance let us endeavour to be accurate."
"The differences are not essential. We are all branches of one tree, whose stem is Christ. To return to the point. This is hardly a moment, Cardinal, for theological niceties."