Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
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324 THE MIRACLES OF ANTICHRIST ’
If any one had asked who reigned in Diamante at
that time, the answer would have been that it was
the Christ-image. Everything was done according
to his will. No one took a wife, or played in a
lottery, or built himself a house without consulting
him.
Many knife-thrusts were spared for the image’s
sake, many old feuds settled, and many bitter words
were never uttered.
The people had to be good, for they observed that
the image helped those who were peaceable and
helpful. To them he granted the pleasant gifts of
happiness and riches.
If the world had been as it ought to be, Diamante
would soon have become a rich and powerful town.
But instead, that part of the world which did not
believe in the image destroyed all his work. All
the happiness he scattered about him was of no
avail.
The taxes were constantly increased, and took all
their money. There was the war in Africa. How
could the people be happy when their sons, their
money, and their mules had to go to Africa ? The
war did not go well; one defeat followed another.
How could they be happy when their country’s honor
was at stake?
Especially after the railway had been finished was
it manifest that Diamante was like an oasis in a
great desert. An oasis is exposed to the drifting
sands of the desert and to robbers and wild beasts.
So was also Diamante. The oasis would have to
spread over the whole desert to feel secure. Diamante
began to believe that it could never be happy until
the whole world worshipped its Christ-image.
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