'I am of a country which also you know not of. Thither I return to meet Mine own.'
'Your answer is evasive. Allow me to point out, with the greatest possible deference, that it is on record how Jesus originally damaged His own case by the vagueness of the replies which He gave to questions and the want of lucidity which characterised His description of Himself. If you claim any, even the remotest, connection with Him, let me advise you to avoid His errors.'
'You know not what you say, you fool of wisdom!'
'Lord,' cried Mr. Treadman,' I believe--help Thou my unbelief! I believe because faith is the great want of the age, and it shall remove mountains; I believe because belief is like the pinch of yeast which, being dropped into the dough, leavens the whole. The leaven spreads through the whole body politic, so that out of a little thing proceeds a great. And, Lord, suffer Thy servant to entreat with Thee. Lose no time. Thy people wait--have waited long; they cry aloud; they look always for the little speck upon the sky; they lift up their hands and beat against heaven's gates. Speak but the word--the one word which Thou canst speak so easily! A whole world will leap into Thy arms.'
'Their will, not mine, be done?'
'Nay, Lord, not so--not so! Esteem me not guilty of such presumption; but I have lived among them, and have seen how the world labours and is in pain, and how Thy people are crushed beneath heavy burdens which press them down almost to the confines of the pit. And therefore out of the fulness and anguish of my knowledge I cry: Lord, come quickly--come quickly! Lose not a moment's time!'
'Your knowledge is greater than Mine?'
'Nay, Lord, I do not say that, nor think it. But Thou art immortal; Thy children are mortal--very mortal. I understand the agony of longing with which they look for Your presence--Your very presence-- in their midst.'
'They that know Me know that I am ever with them. They that do not know Me know not that they see Me before their eyes.'
'You speak in a spiritual sense, I in a material. I know with what a passionate yearning they desire to see you with their mortal eyes, flesh of their flesh, bone of their bone--a man like unto themselves.'