“Comment is useless. It is enough to say in one short sentence that the new era has begun, to which prophets and kings, and the suffering, the dying, all who labour and are heavy-laden, have aspired in vain... Of him who has been the herald of its inauguration we have nothing more to say. Time alone can show what is yet left for him to do.“It is understood now, by fanatic barbarians as well as by civilised nations, that the reign of War is ended. 'Not peace but a sword,' said CHRIST; and bitterly true have those words proved to be. 'Not a sword but peace' is the retort, articulate at last, from those who have renounced CHRIST’S claims or have never accepted them... There shall be no more an appeal to arms, but to justice; no longer a crying after a God Who hides Himself, but to Man who has learned his own Divinity. The Supernatural is dead; rather, we know now that it never yet has been alive. What remains is to work out this new lesson, to bring every action, word and thought to the bar of Love and Justice; and this will be, no doubt, the task of years. Every code must be reversed; every barrier thrown down; party must unite with party, country with country, and continent with continent. There is no longer the fear of fear, the dread of the hereafter, or the paralysis of strife. Man has groaned long enough in the travails of birth; his blood has been poured out like water through his own foolishness; but at length he understands himself and is at peace."
No, this isn't another media orgasm over the election of Barack Obama. It's from "Lord of the World" written by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson in 1906. The book takes place in the distant 21st century and describes the rise of a charismatic leader from the midwestern United States who becomes "President of the World". Some of the book is a bit neurotic, sometimes ridiculous, while many aspects are eerily familiar.
It's worth checking out and can be read online:
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