"You foolish fellows! To think that G.o.d needs to be advised of men!
Consider what G.o.d is; then consider what is man." He turned to the lame man and to the charcoal-burner. "Come! For there is that to do which must be done."
When He had left the room the "General" stole after Him. Mr. Jebb spoke to Mr. Treadman.
"You and I are a pair of fools!"
"Why do you say that?"
"To suppose that anything that we could say would have the slightest weight with Him. It"s clearly a case of His will, not ours, be done.
If tradition is to be trusted, His will was not the popular will in the days of old. He"ll find that it is still less so now. Millions of men, conscious of crying grievances, are not to be treated as automata. There"s trouble brooding."
"Oh, if He only would be guided, so easily He might avoid a repet.i.tion of the former tragedy, and hold undisputed sway in the hearts of all men and women which the world contains."
"I doubt the very easily; and anyhow, He won"t be guided. I for one shall make no further attempt. I don"t know what it is He proposes to Himself (I never could clearly understand what was the intention of the Christ of tradition), but I"m sure that it was something very different to what is in your mind. I am equally certain that the world has never seen, and will never suffer, such an autocrat as He suggests."
"Jebb, I know you mean well, I know how you have devoted your whole life to the good of others, but I wish I could make you understand how every word you utter is a shock to my whole sense of decency and reverence."
"Your sense of decency and reverence! You haven"t any. You and Philipps and Robins, and all men of your kidney, have less of that sort of thing than I have. You are too familiar ever to be reverent."
"Jebb, what noise is that?"
"He has gone out into the street. At sight of Him the people have started shouting. The police will have their hands full if they don"t look out. Something very like the spirit of riot is abroad."
"I must follow Him; I must try to keep close to Him, wherever He may go. Perhaps my a.s.siduity may at last prevail. As it is, it all threatens to turn out so differently to what I had hoped."
"Yes, you had hoped to be a prominent figure in the proceedings, but you are going to take no part in them at all; that"s where the shoe pinches with you, Treadman."
Mr. Treadman had not stayed to listen. He was already down the stairs and at the street door, to find that the Stranger had just pa.s.sed through it, to be greeted by a chorus of exclamations from those who saw Him come.
The s.p.a.cious roadway was filled with people from end to end--an eager, curious, excitable crowd. There were men, women, and children; but though it contained a sprinkling of persons of higher social rank, it was recruited mostly from that cla.s.s which sees nothing objectionable in a crowd as such. Vehicular traffic was stopped. The police kept sufficient open s.p.a.ce upon the pavement to permit of pedestrians pa.s.sing to and fro. In front of the house was a surprising spectacle. Invalids of all sorts and kinds were there gathered together in heterogeneous a.s.semblage. The officials, finding it impossible without using violence to prevent their appearance on the scene, had cleared a portion of the roadway for their accommodation, so that when He appeared, He found Himself confronted by all manner of sick. There were blind, lame, and dumb; idiots and misshapen folk; sufferers from all sorts of disease, in all stages of their maladies. Some were on the bed from which they were unable to raise themselves, some were on chairs, some on the bare ground. They had been brought from all parts of the city--young and old, male and female. There were those among them who had been there throughout the night.
When they saw Him come out of the door, those who could move at all began to press forward so that they might be able to reach Him, crying:
"Heal us! heal us!"
In their eagerness they bade fair to tread each other under foot; seeing which the officer who stood at the gate turned to Him, saying:
"Is it you these poor wretches have come to see? If you have encouraged them in their madness you have incurred a frightful responsibility; the deaths of many of them will be upon your head."
He replied:
"Speak of that of which you have some understanding." To the struggling, stricken crowd in front of Him He said: "Go in peace and sin no more."
Straightway they all were healed of their diseases. The sick sprang out of their beds and from off the ground, cripples threw away their crutches, the crooked were made straight, the blind could see, the dumb could talk. When they found that it was so they were beside themselves with joy. They laughed and sang, ran this way and that, giving vent to their feelings in divers strange fashions.
And all they that saw it were amazed, and presently they raised a great shout:
"It is Christ the King!"
They pressed forward to where He stood upon the step. Stretching out His hand, He held them back.
"Why do you call me king? Of what am I the king? Of your hearts and lives? Of your thoughts at your rising up and lying down? No. You know Me not. But because of this which you have seen you exclaim with your voice; your hearts are still. Who among you doeth My commandments? Is there one who has lived for Me? My name is on your tongues; your bodies you defile with all manner of evil. You esteem yourselves as G.o.ds. There are devils in h.e.l.l who are nearer heaven than some of you. As was said to those of old, Except you be born again you know Me not. I know not you; call not upon My name. For service which is of the lips only is a thing hateful unto G.o.d."
When He ceased to speak the people drew farther from Him and closer to each other, murmuring among themselves:
"Who is he? What are these things which he says? What have we done to him that he should speak to us like this?"
A great stillness came over the crowd; for, although they knew not why, they were ashamed.
When He came down into the street they made way for Him to pa.s.s, no one speaking as He went.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE YOUNG MAN
The fame of these things pa.s.sed from the frequenters of the streets and the hunters of notoriety to those in high places. The matter was discussed at a dinner which was given that night by a Secretary of State to certain dignitaries, both spiritual and temporal. There was no Mr. Treadman there. The atmosphere was sacrosanct. There was an absence of enthusiasm on any subject beneath the sun which, to minds of a certain order, is proper to sanct.i.ty. The conversation wandered from Shakespeare to the musical gla.s.ses; until at last something was said of the subject of the day.
It was the host who began. He was a person who had risen to his high position by a skilful manipulation of those methods which have made of politics a thing apart. A clever man, shrewd, versatile, desirous of being in the van of any movement which promised to achieve success.
"The evening papers are full of strange stories of what took place this morning at Maida Vale. They make one think."
"I understand," said Sir Robert Farquharson, known in the House of Commons as "the Member for India," "that the people are quite excited. Indeed, one can see for oneself that there are an unusual number of people in the streets, and that they all seem talking of the same thing. It reminds one of the waves of religious frenzy which in India temporarily drive a whole city mad."
"We don"t go quite so far as that in London, fortunately. Still, the affair is odd. Either these things have been done, or they haven"t.
In either case, I confess myself puzzled."
The Archbishop looked up from his plate.
"There seems to be nothing known about the person of any sort or kind--neither who he is, nor what he is, nor whence he comes. The most favourable supposition seems to be that he is mentally deranged."
"Suppose he were the Christ?" The Archbishop looked down; his face wore a shocked expression. The Secretary smiled; he has not hesitated to let it be known that he is in bondage to no creed. "That would indeed be to bring religion into the sphere of practical politics."
"Not necessarily. It was a Roman blunder which placed it there before."
This was the Earl of Hailsham, whose fame as a diplomatist is politically great.
"You think that Christ might come and go without any official notice being taken of the matter?"
"Certainly. Why not? That might, and would, have been the case before had Pontius Pilate been a wiser and a stronger man."
"That point of view deserves consideration. Aren"t you ignoring the fact that this is a Christian country?"
"In a social sense, Carruthers, most decidedly. I hope that we are all Christians in England--I know I am--because to be anything else would be the height of impropriety."