And that is how He knows those who are willing to serve Him: by their being pitiful." They fell into a silence.

Joan found herself dreaming.
Yes, it was true.

It must have been the beginning of all things.

Man, pitiless, deaf, blind, groping in the darkness, knowing not even himself.
And to her vision, far off, out of the mist, he shaped himself before her: that dim, first standard-bearer of the Lord, the man who first felt pity.

Savage, brutish, dumb--lonely there amid the desolation, staring down at some hurt creature, man or beast it mattered not, his dull eyes troubled with a strange new pain he understood not.
And suddenly, as he stooped, there must have come a great light into his eyes.
Man had heard God's voice across the deep, and had made answer..