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 116 souls. Our prophets have spoken boldly indeed, but none of them had boasted of the power of the Lord in such terms as this man spake of himself. Could he be mad, I thought, to say such things? Yet in all other matters he had shown a wisdom and a sound sense equal to the greatest of our Sages. Or had he found that by speaking thus of himself, men, and above all, women, were best moved to believe as he would have them believe, to act as he would have them act? Might it not be the simplest of truths that for them, to them, he was indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

And, indeed, when I looked around and saw the effect of his words on those who were listening, I could in part understand his power among men and women. They drank in his words as travellers at the well of the oasis. They lived upon his eyes, and it was indeed strange to see every man's body bent forward as of a straining hound at the chase. If ever men worshipped a man, these were worshipping Jesus.

And I? What was it with me that his words failed to move me as they did those