Volume Ii Part 39 (1/2)
This drew attention the more. Did any of the prostrate raise their eyes to the Madonna on the banner, they must needs turn to him next; and presently the superst.i.tious souls, in the mood for miracles, began whispering to each other:
”See--it is the Son--it is the Lord himself!”
And of a truth the likeness was startling; although in saying this, the reader must remember the difference heretofore remarked between the Greek and Latin ideals.
About that time Sergius looked up to the Princess, whose face shone out of the shadows of the gallery with a positive radiance, and he was electrified seeing her rise from her chair, and wave a hand to him.
He understood her. The hour long talked of, long prepared for, was at last come--the hour of speech. The blood surged to his heart, leaving him pallid as a dead man. He stooped lower, covered his eyes with his hands, and prayed the wordless prayer of one who hastily commits himself to G.o.d; and in the darkness behind his hands there was an illumination, and in the midst of it a sentence in letters each a lambent flame--the Creed of Father Hilarion and the Princess Irene--our Lord's Creed:
”I BELIEVE IN G.o.d, AND JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON.”
This was his theme!
With no thought of self, no consciousness but of duty to be done, trusting in G.o.d, he stood up, pushed gently through the kneeling boys and guardians of the _Panagia_, and took position where all eyes could look at the Blessed Mother slightly above him, and then to himself, in such seeming the very Son. It might have been awe, it might have been astonishment, it might have been presentiment; at all events, the moaning, sobbing, praying, tossing of arms, beating of b.r.e.a.s.t.s, with the other outward signs of remorse, grief and contrition grotesque and pitiful alike subsided, and the Church, apse, nave and gallery, grew silent--as if a wave had rushed in, and washed the life out of it.
”Men and brethren,” he began, ”I know not whence this courage to do comes, unless it be from Heaven, nor at whose word I speak, if not that Jesus of Nazareth, worker of miracles which G.o.d did by him anciently, yet now here in Real Presence of Body and Blood, hearing what we say, seeing what we do.”
”Art thou not He?” asked a hermit, half risen in front of him, his wrap of undressed goatskin fallen away from his naked shoulders.
”No; his servant only am I, even as thou art--his servant who would not have forsaken him at Gethsemane, who would have given him drink on the Cross, who would have watched at the door of his tomb until laid to sleep by the Delivering Angel--his servant not afraid of Death, which, being also his servant, will not pa.s.s me by for the work I now do, if the work be not by his word.”
The voice in this delivery was tremulous, and the manner so humble as to take from the answer every trace of boastfulness. His face, when he raised it, and looked out over the audience, was beautiful. The spectacle offered him in return was thousands of people on their knees, gazing at him undetermined whether to resent an intrusion or welcome a messenger with glad tidings.
”Men and brethren,” he continued, more firmly, casting the old Scriptural address to the farthest auditor, ”now are you in the anguish of remorse; but who told you that you had offended to such a degree? See you not the Spirit, sometimes called the Comforter, in you? Be at ease, for unto us are repentance and pardon. There were who beat our dear Lord, and spit upon him, and tore his beard; who laid him on a cross, and nailed him to it with nails in his hands and feet; one wounded him in the side with a spear; yet what did he, the Holy One and the Just?
Oh! if he forgave them glorying in their offences, will he be less merciful to us repentant?”
Raising his head a little higher, the preacher proceeded, with increased a.s.surance:
”Let me speak freely unto you; for how can a man repent wholly, if the cause of his sin be not laid bare that he may see and hate it?
”Now before our dear Lord departed out of the world, he left sayings, simple even to children, instructing such as would be saved unto everlasting life what they must do to be saved. Those sayings I call our Lord's Creed, by him delivered unto his disciples, from whom we have them: 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life.' So we have the First Article--belief in G.o.d. Again: 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.' Behold the Second Article--belief in Christ.
”Now, for that the Son, and he who sent him, are at least in purpose one, belief in either of them is declared sufficient; nevertheless it may be simpler, if not safer, for us to cast the Two Articles together in a single phrase; we have then a Creed which we may affirm was made and left behind him by our Lord himself:
I BELIEVE IN G.o.d, AND JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON.
And when we sound it, lo! two conditions in all; and he who embraces them, more is not required of him; he is already pa.s.sed from death unto life--everlasting life.
”This, brethren, is the citadel of our Christian faith; wherefore, to strengthen it. What was the mission of Jesus Christ our Lord to the world? Hear every one! What was the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Why was he sent of G.o.d, and born into the world? Hearing the question, take heed of the answer: He was sent of G.o.d for the salvation of men.
You have ears, hear; minds, think; nor shall one of you, the richest in understanding of the Scriptures, in walk nearest the Sinless Example, ever find another mission for him which is not an arraignment of the love of his Father.
”Then, if it be true, as we all say, not one denying it, that our Lord brought to his mission the perfected wisdom of his Father, how could he have departed from the world leaving the way of salvation unmarked and unlighted? Or, sent expressly to show us the way, himself the appointed guide, what welcome can we suppose he would have had from his Father in Heaven, if he had given the duty over to the angels? Or, knowing the deceitfulness of the human heart, and its weakness and liability to temptation, whence the necessity for his coming to us, what if he had given the duty over to men, so much lower than the angels, and then gone away? Rather than such a thought of him, let us believe, if the way had been along the land, he would have planted it with inscribed hills; if over the seas, he would have sown the seas with pillars of direction above the waves; if through the air, he would have made it a path effulgent with suns numerous as the stars. 'I am the Way,' he said--meaning the way lies through me; and you may come to me in the place I go to prepare for you, if only you believe in G.o.d and me. Men and brethren, our Lord was true to his mission, and wise in the wisdom of his Father.”
At this the hermit in front of the preacher, uttering a s.h.i.+ll cry, spread his arms abroad, and quivered from head to foot. Many of those near sprang forward to catch him.
”No, leave him alone,” cried Sergius, ”leave him alone. The cross he took was heavy of itself; but upon the cross you heaped conditions without sanction, making a burden of which he was like to die. At last he sees how easy it is to go to his Master; that he has only to believe in G.o.d and the Master. Leave him with the truth; it was sent to save, not to kill.”
The excitement over, Sergius resumed:
”I come now, brethren, to the cause of your affliction. I will show it to you; that is to say, I will show you why you are divided amongst yourselves, and resort to cruelty one unto another; as if murder would help either side of the quarrel. I will show your disputes do not come from anything said or done by our Lord, whose almost last prayer was that all who believed in him might be made perfect in one.