there a God at all?'

"It was in the thick darkness of that time the Prince visited them. He
met them fleeing from their home. He gave up his own plans that he
might help them. His coming into the village, into the very thick of
its misery, was like the morning dawn. He was summer heat and summer
cheer to the people. The clouds of anxiety and of terror began to
lift. The shadow of death was changed for them into the morning. He
made himself one with them. He went from house to house with cheer and
help. The burden seemed less heavy, the future less dark, that this
helper was by their side. Best of all, faith came back to them. It
was as if the Lord had come back. In a real sense He had come back.
He was present in His servant the Prince. The people beheld the form
of the Son of God going about their streets doing good. They saw the
old miracles. The blind saw, the deaf heard God, as in the days when
Jesus was in the flesh. Even death was conquered before their eyes. A
real gleam of heaven is falling this evening on the once-darkened
village. The evil things that infested its life have been cast out and
a new heaven and a new earth have come to it. It is the Golden Age
come down to them from God.

"In his great task the dear Prince died. Our hearts are heavy for that
we shall see his face no more. But count it not strange that he died,
or that this trial should have descended on our King and us. It is the
rule in the kingdom of the Lord. Whoever will bring the Golden Age
where sin is, must himself lay down his life. For those peasants, as
Christ for all mankind, the Prince laid down his life."

The people listened till the Councillor reached these words, then, as
by one impulse, they rose and burst into a grand doxology. Then a