Jasper Carter had come in time to secure a seat in the gallery. He sat there watching the great crowd pour in, a cynical smile on his hard face and the words on his lips in undertone, “What fools these mortals be!”

He had not been to church in years. His paper had contained an editorial two weeks before advocating the closing of the churches as useless appendages to modern progress—by “progress,” meaning material, physical, money-making human productivity.

By half past nine, the crowd outside was so dense and unruly that a detachment of police was on hand to preserve order. At ten o’clock, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. West, rose and faced the people, who were getting restless, and announced that the service would shortly begin for all the people in the church, and that an outdoor meeting would be held at the close of the indoor service. This word passed to the impatient crowd outdoors and did much to subdue the multitude, which continued to wait and increase in numbers until the whole street was packed with an excited wall of people.

The door at the side of the pulpit platform opened, and the organist, the choir, and Rachel went up in the choir loft. Then three persons came out: Mr. Maxwell, Mr. Stanton, and a third man.

People in the back seats of the gallery stood up. Every eye was on that third figure. And in a stillness like death, or as if the audience stood at the threshold of a new chapter of human history, that unparalleled service in the First Church of Raymond began.

Chapter Four

It was Monday morning and Jasper Carter was in his office at the Gazette building, talking with Barnes, his oldest reporter.

“Oh, I grant it was a most remarkable occasion and all that, and it will cause a sensation and make a good story, but your account of it won’t do, Barnes. It simply won’t do. Why, in this”—Carter brought his fist down on a pile of notes on his desk—“you positively state that this person is Jesus, in person, the same Jesus who was here centuries ago.”

“And he is,” said Barnes.

Carter burst out angrily, “Look here, Barnes. We can’t afford to be responsible for such a statement. Besides, what is the use, when we can put out just as good a story without staying that this person really is Jesus?”

“But I believe he really is.”

Carter sat back in his chair and eyed Barnes curiously. “You really believe he is, do you?”

“Yes, Mr. Carter, I do. I believe it with all my heart and mind. I do not believe any living man could have said the things he said yesterday in the First Church in the way he did.”

“Do you consider the absurdity of your position, Barnes? Is it possible for such a stupendous thing to happen, to be a fact, in this age of the world?” Carter nearly shouted.