tteth the station of thy sovereignty....

"I swear by the truth of God! Were he who hath been willing to treat Me in
such a manner to know who it is whom he hath so treated, he, verily, would
never in his life be happy. Nay--I, verily, acquaint thee with the truth of
the matter--it is as if he hath imprisoned all the Prophets, and all the
men of truth, and all the chosen ones.... Woe betide him from whose hands
floweth evil, and blessed the man from whose hands floweth good....

"I swear by God! I seek no earthly goods from thee, be it as much as a
mustard seed.... I swear by the truth of God! Wert thou to know that which
I know, thou wouldst forego the sovereignty of this world and of the next,
that thou mightest attain My good pleasure, through thine obedience unto
the True One.... Wert thou to refuse, the Lord of the world would raise up
one who will exalt His Cause, and the Command of God will, verily, be
carried into effect."

GOD'S VICAR ON EARTH

Dear friends! How vast a panorama these gemlike, these soul-searching
divinely uttered pronouncements outspread before our eyes! What memories
they evoke! How sublime the principles they inculcate! What hopes they
engender! What apprehensions they excite! And yet how fragmentary must
these above-quoted words, suited as they are to the immediate purpose of
my theme, appear when compared with the torrential majesty which only the
reading of the full text can disclose! He Who was God's Vicar on earth,
addressing, at the most critical moment when His Revelation was attaining
its zenith, those who concentrated in their persons the splendor, the
sovereignty, and the strength of earthly dominion, could certainly not
subtract one jot or tittle from the weight and force which the
presentation of so historic a Message demanded. Neither the perils which
were fast closing in upon Him, nor the formidable power with which the
doctrine of absolute sovereignty invested, at that time, the emperors of
the West and the potentates of the East, could restrain the Exile and
Prisoner of Adrianople from communicating the full blast of His Message to
His twin imperial persecutors as well as to the rest of their
fellow-sovereigns.

The magnitude and diversity of the theme, the cogency of the argument, the
sublimity and audacity of the language, arrest our attention and astound
our minds. Emperors, kings and princes, chancellors and ministers, the
Pope himself, priests, monks and phi