The ills of the time

“The cause of my disquiet,” Balthasar began, calmly—“that which made me a preacher in Alexandria and in the villages of the Nile; that which drove me at last into the solitude where the Spirit found me—was the fallen condition of men, occasioned, as I believed, by loss of the knowledge of God.

“I sorrowed for the sorrows of my kind—not of one class, but all of them. So utterly were they fallen it seemed to me there could be no Redemption unless God himself would make it his work; and I prayed him to come, and that I might see him.

“‘Thy good works have conquered. The Redemption cometh; thou shalt see the Savior’—thus the Voice spake; and with the answer I went up to Jerusalem rejoicing.

“Now, to whom is the Redemption? To all the world. And how shall it be? Strengthen thy faith, my son!

“Men say, I know, that there will be no happiness until Rome is razed from her hills. That is to say, the ills of the time are not, as I thought them, from ignorance of God, but from the misgovernment of rulers.

“Do we need to be told that human governments are never for the sake of religion? How many kings have you heard of who were better than their subjects?

“Oh no, no! The Redemption cannot be for a political purpose—to pull down rulers and powers, and vacate their places merely that others may take and enjoy them. If that were all of it, the wisdom of God would cease to be surpassing.

“I tell you, though it be but the saying of blind to blind, he that comes is to be a Savior of souls; and the Redemption means God once more on earth, and righteousness, that his stay here may be tolerable to himself.” …

“Man as a subject is the ambition of a king; the soul of a man for its salvation is the desire of a God.”

Source: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace


“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).