二 千多年前，他生於一個寂寂無名的小村莊，
在貧窮中生活， 在卑微中長大。他在一木匠店工作 一直到卅歲。
其後有三年日子，他是一位巡迴佈道者。
 

他不曾擁有房 子，不曾著書立說，不曾擁有自己的辦公室及家庭。
他沒有上過大學， 沒踏足過大城市，也不曾離開過出生地兩百哩以外。
他只聚集一小群朋友，把生命之道教導他們……。

當群眾公然反 對他時，他才卅三歲。那時，他的朋友都逃跑了。
其中一個不認他。另一個把他交給仇敵。

他經歷 了遭人嘲弄的審判，被釘在兩個強盜之間的十字架上。
快要斷氣時，執行死刑的兵丁拈鬮分他的衣服──他在地上唯一的 財物。

死時，他在朋友的憐憫下，被埋葬在一個借來的墓穴。

廿個世紀來了又過去，而他至今仍是人類的焦點。

當 我們要總結 他對人類的影響時，我們只能說：若將所有曾作戰的軍隊、
曾興建 過的海軍、曾召開過的國會、曾統治過的君王，都集合起來，
我們發 現，這些偉大的人與事對這個世界的影響，
特別是 對人類生命的影響力，遠不及這孤獨的生命來得巨大！

（This essay was adapted from one of Dr. James Allan Francis’sermon, 1926; rewritten by someone.）

■ 翻譯／馮文娜

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One solitary life

Two thousand years ago He was born in an obscure village.
He lived in poverty and was reared in obscurity.
He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.
Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book.
He never held an office. 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 He was born.
He gathered a little group of friends about Him and taught them His way of life.

He was only 33 when the public 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 upon a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing,
the only property He had on earth.
When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave.

Twenty centuries have come and gone,and
today He is the central figure of the human race.

When we try to sum up His influence,
all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built;
all the parliaments that ever sat 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.

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