The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

392 THE MIRACLE OF REPARATION
a striking description of the stupor into which Charles,
Duke of Burgundy, fell after his defeat at the hands
of the Swiss, and just before the conflict in which he
lost his life. He had always been fastidious in dress
and zealous for all the detailed proprieties of royal
courts. No one had seen him with tousled head or
untrimmed beard, crumpled fold in
his robe or speck
of dirt on his trappings. From the time of his first
defeat he grew indifferent to outward appearances.
Robe was left unclasped, nails uncut, beard and head
matted into foul tangles, and he was all but dead to
the events which were occurring around him, fateful
omens for the coming battle. In his humiliation at
the hands of the foe, he had lost the sense of majesty
and all the instincts of kingship, and this loss was a
sign of his own collapse
and a precursor of crushing
and final overthrow.
How unlike the picture of Jesus in His hour of
sorrow presented to us by the third Evangelist !
A
captive in the hands of His ruthless foes, He yet retains
a sense of kingship and all the marks of authority.
There is here no mental deshabille, significant of
paralysing despondency and imminent defeat. Nu
temper of panic or faltering faith operates to dissipate
His miraculous power. Bound by ruthless foes, His
royal, creative word can bid the forces which repair
and heal. A prisoner, He can yet direct with His high
command the subtle laws and resources of the universe,
and enlist them for the last benignity of His
earthly mission. No lassitude or negligence appears
to tell of a self-conscious impotence and despair. In
His bitterest humiliations He is
as royal as when bidding
the troubled waves die down or attracting the love