The Prince of India by Lew Wallace, Fiction, Literary, Historical 12+

📘 FROM THE AUTHOR OF BEN-HUR, A TALE OF FAITH AND THE EASTIt was not his first visit to Mecca. But the purpose in mind gave the journey a new zest; and nothing in the least indicative of the prevalent spirit of the Hajj escaped him. Hundreds of years ago he smote Christ on his way to the Cross -- and for that act he was blessed and pained to wait and meet His second coming, wandering through the centuries undying and drawn thin and weary. Fifty years ago, disgusted with the endless strife between Islam and Christianity, he went to Japan to be shut of it. There, in a repentant hour, he had conceived the idea of a Universal Religious Brotherhood, with God for its accordant principle; and he was now returned to present and urge the compromise. . . .