There was a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things usually accompanying greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying-and that was his coat. When he was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies ever assembled, and all the navies ever built, and all the parliaments ever called to order, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life. Source: This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in "The Real Jesus and Other Sermons" � 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled "Arise Sir Knight!")