And as He thus walked among
them, living a life with them, human in every part, and exercising a
human influence on them; so also His most important business was to
talk with them of the kingdom of God, to reprove and rouse them up
from their slowness of heart, and to open the eyes of their minds. Now
so it is, my friends, with our new life--that is like the resurrection
life of the Lord. Oh, how very gradually it gains its faculties in us,
grows and becomes strong, only bearing still more than the new life
of the Lord the traces of earthly imperfection. I can appeal on this
point to the feeling of us all, for assuredly it is the same in all.
How intermittent at first are the manifestations of this new life,
and how limited the sphere of its action! How long does it retain
its sensitive spots, which can not be touched without pain, or even
without injurious consequences, and those are always the places in
which the old man has been most deeply wounded in his dying hours! But
in proportion as it becomes stronger, this new life ought the less to
give the impression of being a mere fantom life,--the impression the
Lord's disciples had when in the first moments they thought in their
fear that they saw a spirit, so that He was obliged to appeal to the
testimony of all their senses, that they might perceive He was no
spirit, but had flesh and bones.
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