“There is no remedy for industrial troubles but Christianity,” she said gently. “Not the burlesque Christianity of our countless sects and churches; not Roman Catholicism; not Protestantism; nor any of the fads and fancies of the human mind; but just the Christianity of Jesus of Nazareth, who knew that the human man was not God’s image, but only stood for it in the mortal consciousness. And he always saw behind this counterfeit the real man, the true likeness of God. And––”
“You are diverging from the subject proper and consuming time, Miss Ariza!” interrupted the judge sternly.
Carmen did not heed him, but continued quietly:
“And it was just such a man that Jesus portrayed in his daily walk and words.”
“Miss Ariza!” again commanded the judge.
“No,” the girl went calmly on, “Jesus did not stand for the intolerance, the ignorance, the bigotry, the hatred, and the human hypothesis, the fraud, and chicanery, and the ‘Who shall be greatest?’ of human institutions. Nor did he make evil a reality, as mortals do. He knew it seemed awfully real to the deceived human consciousness; but he told that consciousness to be not afraid. And then he went to work and drove out the belief of evil on the basis of its nothingness and its total lack of principle. The orthodox churches and sects of to-day do not do that. Oh, no! They strive for world dominion! Their kingdom is wholly temporal, and is upheld by heartless millionaires, and by warlike kings and emperors. Their tenets shame the intelligence of thinking men! Yet they have slain tens of millions to establish them!”
What could the Court do? To remove the girl meant depriving Ames of his prey. But if she remained upon the stand, she would put them all to confusion, for they had no means of silencing her. The judge looked blankly at Ames; his hands were tied.
Ellis hurried to change the current of her talk by interposing another question.
“Will you tell us, Miss Carmen, why you have been working––”