“I was in quest of knowledge, but I had no faith to sustain, no creed
to bolster up. The result was that the whole field of religious and
biblical history opened up before me, and, my vision not being clouded
by previously formed opinions, I was enabled to survey it without the
aid of lenses. I believe I was thorough and persistent. I know I was
conscientious in my search for the truth. I weighed, I analyzed, I
counted and compared. The evolution from conjecture into knowledge,
through opinion and belief, was gradual but irresistible; and at length
I stood firmly and defiantly on the solid rock. Upward of seven hundred
thousand copies of ‘Ben Hur’ have been published, and it has been
translated into all languages from French to Arabic; but, whether it
has ever influenced the mind of a single reader or not, I am sure its
conception and preparation, if it has done nothing more, has convinced
its author of the divinity of the lowly Nazarene who walked and talked
with God.”