The passionate words were hotly, almost aggressively spoken, but in some unfathomable depth of the father's heart the old man was proud of his son at that moment—strong, fearless, and right.
"And the sermon in public—was that also on the corruptions of Islam?"
"No, sir, it was about the spirit of the world—the greed of wealth which is making people forget in these days that the true welfare of a nation is moral, not material."
"Anything else?"
"Yes—the hope of a time when the world will have so far progressed towards peace that arms will be laid down and a Redeemer will come to proclaim a universal brotherhood."
"That didn't strike you as ridiculous—to see one unlettered man trying to efface the laws of civilised society—asking sensible people to turn their backs on the facts of life in order to live in a spiritual hothouse of dreams?"
"No, Father, that did not strike me as ridiculous, because——"
"Because—what—what now?"
"Because John the Baptist and Jesus Christ did precisely the same thing."
There was silence for a moment, and then the old. man said-