Christ, Rejected
A skeptic's fearful denial of Christ's deity reveals the tragic consequences of rejecting Him.
A well-known learned man of Saxony, after having all his life long attacked Jesus and his gospel with all the weapons of sophistry, was in his old days partially deprived of his reason, chiefly through the fear of death; and frequently fell into religious paroxysms of a peculiar nature. He was almost daily observed conversing with himself, while pacing to and fro in his chamber, on one of the walls of which, between other pictures, hung one of the Saviour. Repeatedly he halted before the latter, and said in a horrifying tone of voice, "After all, thou wast only a man!" Then, after a short pause, he would continue, "What wast thou more than a man? Ought I to worship thee? No: I will not worship thee, for thou art only Rabbi Jesus, Joseph's son, of Nazareth." Uttering these words, he would return with a deeply-affected countenance, and exclaim, "What dost thou say?—that thou camest from above? How terribly thou eyest me! Oh! thou art dreadful! But thou art only a man, after all." Then he would again rush away, but soon return with faltering step, crying out, "What! art thou in reality the Son of God?" The same scenes were daily renewed, till the unhappy man, struck by paralysis, dropped down dead; and then really stood before his Judge, who, even in his picture, had so strikingly and overpoweringly judged him.
— Caughey