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FOUNDED UPON LOVE

Napoleon standing on the brow of St. Helena, said to Montholon: “Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?” Without waiting for an answer he continued: “There is something about him which I cannot understand. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself have founded great empires. But on what did these creations of our genius rest? Upon force. But Jesus founded his upon love; and this very day millions would die for him. I have inspired multitudes with an enthusiastic devotion, such that they would have died for me; but to do this it was necessary that I should be present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, and my voice. When I saw men, and spoke to them, I lighted up the flame of devotion in their hearts. But Jesus by some mysterious influence, reaching down through a lapse of eighteen hundred

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years, so draws the hearts of men toward him that thousands, at a word, would rush through fire and flood for him, counting not their lives dear unto them.”

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— May, 1887 —