Abigail snapped this photograph of me reading aloud "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" to family (that's a copy from 1887 that I'm holding!).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.
He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
He was in the world, and the world did not know Him.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
~ John 1:1-14.
“So preoccupied is the mind with myths and systems; so much do false deities crowd every place–earth, air, sky; so have they become of everything a part, that return to the first religion can only be along bloody paths, through fields of persecution; that is to say, the converts must be willing to die rather than recant. And who in this age can carry the faith of men to such a point but God himself? To redeem the race–I do not mean to destroy it–to REDEEM the race, he must make himself once more manifest; HE MUST COME IN PERSON.”
~ The Magi in General Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
The keeping room at night, after the multitudes have dispersed...
