CHAPTER IX.
THE GENTLENESS OF TRUE GIANTHOOD.
History has never known another such an enthusiasm for a hero as the multitude once felt toward Jesus Christ.

There have indeed been times when such patriots as Garibaldi, Kossuth and Lincoln have kindled in men an enthusiasm akin to adoration and worship.

Yet let us hasten to confess that the qualities calculated to quicken men into raptures of devotion appeared in these patriots only in fragmentary form, while they dwelt in Christ in full-orbed majesty and splendor.

The welcome Chicago gave to Grant upon his return from his journey around the world; the enthusiasm excited by Kossuth when in 1851 he drove through Broadway, New York; the wave of gratitude that swept over the Italian multitude when Garibaldi appeared in Florence--all these are events that bear witness to society's devotion to its patriots and heroes.
But, be it remembered, these scenes occurred but once in the history of each of these great men.
It stirs wonder in us, therefore, that Christ's every journey across the fields took on the aspect of a triumphal procession, while His popularity waxed with familiarity and the increasing years.

Indeed, full oft the rapture men felt toward Him amounted to an intoxication and an ecstasy of devotion.