"The miracle was no miracle!"
"No miracle!" exclaimed the Pope, moved at last from his usual
inflexibility, "Do you hear that, Domenico?" turning excitedly to
Gherardi, "No miracle!"
"No miracle!" repeated Manuel, steadily--"Nothing but the law of
Nature working in response to the law of God, which is Love! The
child was healed of his infirmity by the power of unselfish prayer.
Are we not told 'Ask and ye shall receive'? But the asking must be
pure! The prayer must be untainted by self-interest! God does not
answer prayer that is paid for in this world's coin! No miracle was
ever wrought for a fee! Only when perfect love and perfect faith
exist between the creature and the Creator, are all things
possible!"
A nervous twitching of the Pope's features showed his suppressed
irritation at this reply.
"The boy jests with us!" he said angrily, "He defends his
benefactor, but he either does not understand, or else is regardless
of our authority!"
"What, do you not also believe?" asked Manuel, placing one foot on
the first step of the Pope's throne, and looking him straightly in
the face, "Do you not even affirm that God answers prayers? Do YOU
not pray? Do you not assert that you yourself are benefited and
helped--nay, even kept alive by the prayers of the faithful? Then
why should you doubt that Cardinal Bonpre has, by his prayer,
rescued one life--the life of a little child? Is not your Church
built up for prayer? Do you not command it? Do you not even insist
upon the 'vain repetitions' which Christ forbade? Do you not summon
the people to pray in public?--though Christ bade all who truly
sought to follow Him to pray in secret? And amid all the false
prayers, the unthinking, selfish petitions, the blasphemous demands
for curses and confusion to fall upon enemies and contradictors, the
cowardly cryings for pardon from sinners who do not repent, that are
sent up to the throne of the Most High,--is it marvellous that one
prayer, pure of all self and sophistry, ascending to God, simply to
ask for the life of a child should be heard and granted?"
His voice rang through the silence with a pure intonation, unlike
any human voice in the world--and as he spoke, the Pope slowly drew
back in his chair, further and further away from the young,
beautiful face that confronted his own so steadily.
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