"You are speaking well," observed a third. "And I cannot think, for my part, that the Lord Jesus will be angry with us when He knows all. Has He not given us our families to take care of? Does not His holy Apostle say in his Letter, 'If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel'? If we must deny the faith, and be infidels, it seems as well to do it one way as another."
"And I have my old father to think of; he will die of grief," a sad voice murmured.
"'He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me,'" said another voice, unheard till then amongst them. Thomassian rose up in his place, and looked around him on the group. His whole appearance was changed—transfigured; his look firm and fearless, his eyes shining as if with some inner light.
"My brothers," he said, "you think I have no right to speak to you, that it ill becomes me to take upon my lips the words of my Lord and Saviour. And you think that which is true."
"No, no," murmured two or three, unwilling, in that supreme hour, to give pain to a fellow-sufferer.
But Kaspar said more frankly, "To confess the truth, we none of us thought you were a religious man, Baron Thomassian."
"I was not. I lived for the things seen, not for the things unseen, which are eternal. Very early I said to myself, 'I am an Armenian, one of an oppressed, down-trodden race. I cannot rise, make a mark in the world, and win its splendid prizes. Yet I have brains. I have the power to will, to plan, to execute. What can I do?' There was but one answer—'I can get wealth, and wealth means safety, enjoyment, influence.' So I tried to get wealth, and I got it by honest industry. At least in the beginning, my hands were clean enough. I prospered; I surrounded myself with comforts, with luxuries. I took to wife a lady, whom—God help me!—I love as truly as any man among you loves his own. But—ah me!—I forgot God."
"So no doubt have we all, some more, some less," said Kaspar Hohanian.
"If there is any one here who feels that, let him look up and take comfort," Thomassian went on, "for not one among you has gone from Him so far as I. But, though I forgot Him, He has remembered me. I was led on from one thing to another; until, for the sake of gain, I did some things of which the thought can sting me even now. I was hard upon the poor, and upon my debtors. I did wrong in various ways, and even to some who trusted me. Mr. John Grayson, you are one of those I wronged."