(April 10, 1827\u20131905), was a Major-General in the Civil War, a diplomat and the author of the novel, 3 1880. He became the Governor of New Mexico, 1878\u201381; and served as the U.S. minister to Turkey, 1881\u201385.<\/p>\n
On February 2, 1893, he wrote in the Youth Companion<\/i>:<\/p>\n
At that time (1875), speaking candidly, I was not in the least influenced by religious sentiment. I had no conviction about God and Christ. I neither believed nor disbelieved them. \u2026 <\/p>\n
I had been listening to a discussion which involved such elemental points as God, Heaven, life hereafter, Jesus Christ, and His Divinity. Trudging on in the dark, alone, except as one\u2019s thoughts may be company, good or bad, a sense of the importance of the theme struck me for the first time with a force both singular and persistent. I was ashamed of myself, and make haste now to declare that mortification of pride I then endured, or, if it be preferred, the punishment of spirit, ended in a resolution to study the whole matter, if only for the gratification there might be in having convictions of one kind or another. <\/p>\n
Forthwith a number of practical suggestions assailed me. How could I conduct the study? Delve into theology? I shuddered. \u2026 There were the sermons and commentaries. The very thought of them overwhelmed me with an idea of the shortness of life. No, I would read the Bible and the four Gospels. A lawyer of fifteen or twenty years of practice attains a confidence peculiar in his mental muscularity, so to speak. \u2026 <\/p>\n
The manuscript in my desk ended with the birth of Christ; why not make it the first book of a volume, and go on to His death? I halted\u2014there was light! \u2026 I had my opening; it was the birth of Christ. Could anything be more beautiful? As a mere story, the imagination of man has conceived nothing more crowded with poetry, mystery, and incidents, pathetic and sublime, nothing sweeter with human interest, nothing so nearly a revelation of God in person. <\/p>\n
So, too, I saw a fitting conclusion. Viewed purely and professionally as a climax or catastrophe to be written up to, the final scene of the last act of the tragedy, what could be more stupendous than the Crucifixion? \u2026 Wanting a connecting thread for the whole story\u2014that given to Christ the Child and that given to Christ the Saviour, I kept Belthasar alive to the end. \u2026 <\/p>\n
I determined to withhold the reappearance of the Saviour until the very last hours. Meanwhile, He should always be coming\u2014today I would have Him, as it were, just over the hill yonder\u2014tomorrow He will be here, and then tomorrow. \u2026 Finally when He was come, I would be religiously careful that every word He uttered should be a literal quotation from one of His sainted biographers. \u2026 <\/p>\n
The name \u201cBen-Hur\u201d was chosen because it was biblical, and easily spelled, printed and pronounced. As this article is in the nature of confessions, here is one which the readers of the Youth\u2019s Companion<\/i> may excuse, and accept at the same time as a fitting conclusion: Long before I was through with my book I became a believer in God and Christ.2652<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(April 10, 1827\u20131905), was a Major-General in the Civil War, a diplomat and the author of the novel, 3 1880. He became the Governor of New Mexico, 1878\u201381; and served as the U.S. minister to Turkey, 1881\u201385. On February 2, 1893, he wrote in the Youth Companion: At that time (1875), speaking candidly, I was … Continue reading “WALLACE,
\nLEWIS \u201cLEW\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}