Emotion, curiosity, awe overmastered me suddenly. I made an effort ... and
looked at my neighbour.
A face like every one’s, a face like all men’s faces. The eyes looked a
little upwards, quietly and intently. The lips closed, but not compressed;
the upper lip, as it were, resting on the lower; a small beard parted in
two. The hands folded and still. And the clothes on him like every one’s.
‘What sort of Christ is this?’ I thought. ‘Such an ordinary, ordinary man!
It can’t be!’
I turned away. But I had hardly turned my eyes away from this ordinary man
when I felt again that it really was none other than Christ standing beside
me.
Again I made an effort over myself.... And again the same face, like all
men’s faces, the same everyday though unknown features.
And suddenly my heart sank, and I came to myself. Only then I realised that
just such a face--a face like all men’s faces--is the face of Christ.
_Dec. 1878._