The last six years of Napoleon Bonaparte’s life were
spent exiled on the island of St. Helena. Bonaparte was one of the greatest military leaders to ever live. He conquered Egypt, and was successful in invading most of Europe. He was the emperor of France, and had sweet terms named after him like Napoleonic Code, Bonapartism, and Napoleon complex.
He was one of the most powerful men to ever live. Yet still, while looking back on all his conquests, triumphs and accomplishments, he was humbled by a King. One day, Bonaparte asked his confidant, Count Montholon, if he could tell him who Jesus Christ was? Montholon could not.
“Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon Force.
Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him … I think I understand something of human nature, and I tell you, all these were men and I am a man. No one else is like Him. Jesus Christ was more than a man …
I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me … but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts … Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen … Across a chasm of of eighteen-hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of
his friends
or a father of his children
or a bride of her spouse
or a man of his brother
He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted.
Wonderful!
… All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him … Time, the Great Destroyer, is
powerless to extinguish this sacred flame. Time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me the most; I have often thought of it. This is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte
