More Than a Prophet

by Lloyd C. Douglas

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII MORE THAN A PROPHET A single rectangular bar of sunlight, two feet in breadth by one in thickness, had traveled slowly near the southern wall, from the western to the eastern side of the dungeon, seventy-five times. On the morning of the first day of Kislev, the prisoner went to the white stone door of his cell and, taking a smooth piece of red sandstone from his wallet, added one tiny mark to a long row of similar marks; then, tapping each lightly with the stone, that the enumeration be accurate, he counted all. There were seventy-six. He turned again to the door; with the palm of his left hand, erased some characters from a little space and set down three numbers in a column, drew a line and placed the result beneath it. This latter he erased; once more he wrote the same result below the line. The little problem might have been solved easily without the figures, but the calculator wanted to be accurate. He took three strides to the southern boundary of his quarters. His head penetrated the bar of sunlight, which turned his thick, brown locks to ropes of gold. His thoughts still lingered on his recent mathematical demonstration, and he murmured to himself, "The first day of Kislev!" Each of the seventy-five days preceding had been precisely like all the others. Three times each day, for seventy-five days, a guard had unlocked the great, stone door; had entered, quietly; had placed food upon the floor; had departed, without a word; and the door had closed after him with a dull sound that threw a hollow echo through the dungeon. On seventy-five evenings, the hermit had stretched out his massive form on the damp floor, and slept. Had the prisoner been any other than who he was, the guard, carrying the coarse meal into the...

38 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2015

About the author

Lloyd C. Douglas was a noteworthy American minister and author. He spent part of his boyhood in Monroeville, Indiana, Wilmot, Indiana and Florence, Kentucky, where his father, Alexander Jackson Douglas, was pastor of the Hopeful Lutheran Church. He died in Los Angeles, California.
Douglas was one of the most popular American authors of his time, although he didn't write his first novel until he was 50.
His written works were of a moral, didactic, and distinctly religious tone. His first novel, Magnificent Obsession, was an immediate and sensational success. Critics held that his type of fiction was in the tradition of the great religious writings of an earlier generation, such as, Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis.
Douglas is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Reviews

[Ronald Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Potential readers should be aware that this book is unlike any of the novels for which Lloyd Douglas is famous. It was published more than twenty years before his bestsellers, when he was newly graduated from Wittenberg College's divinity school. It is of historic interest because it was written just before he committed his life to an updating of the faith, to meet the demands of the modern age. There is nothing modern in this book, and there is very little in it that is even of earthly interest. The hero of the story is an angel, and much of the action occurs in the heavens. All the dialogue is in Elizabethan English.

Nevertheless, there is something wondrous about Douglas's narrative voice in this book. It has a strange cadence, like poetry. The landscape of the story is also more grand and sweeping than in any of his later novels, since it takes us beyond the material world. And it is fascinating to read his account of what happens to the devil and his army of mutinous angels - this from an author who, later on, was quite passionate about denying the existence of a devil. If you think you know Lloyd Douglas, this slender book is full of surprises.

It is a difficult book to read, however, and most readers would be best advised to avoid it. But for those who respect the mind of Lloyd Douglas and want to trace his evolution as a religious thinker and as a popular writer, it may be well worth the effort.