Page 32 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

BILL’S STORY 11
To Christ I conceded the certainty of a great man,
not too closely followed by those who claimed Him.
His moral teaching—most excellent. For myself, I had
adopted those parts which seemed convenient and not
too difficult; the rest I disregarded.
The wars which had been fought, the burnings and
chicanery that religious dispute had facilitated, made
me sick. I honestly doubted whether, on balance, the
religions of mankind had done any good. Judging
from what I had seen in Europe and since, the power
of God in human affairs was negligible, the Brother-
hood of Man a grim jest. If there was a Devil, he
seemed the Boss Universal, and he certainly had me.
But my friend sat before me, and he made the point-
blank declaration that God had done for him what he
could not do for himself. His human will had failed.
Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was
about to lock him up. Like myself, he had admitted
complete defeat. Then he had, in effect, been raised
from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to
a level of life better than the best he had ever known!
Had this power originated in him? Obviously it had
not. There had been no more power in him than there
was in me at that minute; and this was none at all.
That floored me. It began to look as though reli-
gious people were right after all. Here was something
at work in a human heart which had done the impos-
sible. My ideas about miracles were drastically revised
right then. Never mind the musty past; here sat a
miracle directly across the kitchen table. He shouted
great tidings.
I saw that my friend was much more than inwardly