Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the LordAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Religion
Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Christian fiction; Jesus Christ -- Fiction
When I spake with one of the disciples concerning that which was to come,
and how the Kingdom was to be established, now that all Israel was against
us, he would fain have kept silence; and when I urged him, he said, “What
know I? Sometimes I am lifted up in my soul, and I know and am sure that
the Kingdom shall come; but at other times I know not what to think, nor
can I understand why Jesus would work no sign in heaven. But then again I
say unto myself that whether he be the Redeemer of Israel or no, he is of
a surety the Redeemer of my soul. For in his presence I find life: but to
be absent from him is death. The sum is, that I trust in him to‐day, for I
know not what else to do: but as for the morrow and what it may bring
forth, behold, all things are uncertain and unshapen in my mind.” The like
also said others of the disciples, albeit not in such plain terms, for
almost all spake unwillingly. Yet could I not but perceive that the most
part had been sorely shaken in their faith, because Jesus had denied to
work a sign in heaven: and it was even as Jesus had warned us; the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees had entered into our souls.
Wherefore, although we all still called our Master, as before, the Christ
or Anointed, and the Redeemer, or at the least, the Prophet, yet inwardly
we were wavering in our hearts; and a breath would have moved us this way
or that way, towards belief or towards unbelief. For indeed we were being
driven down, as it were, from our former faith, whereby we had believed in
Jesus as a worker of wonders or fulfiller of prophecy; and we were falling
(as it seemed, but in truth we were rising) to another and a new belief in
Jesus as a man, full of tenderness, and suffering, and patience, and
withal of a goodness that could not be deceived nor disappointed; and this
perchance was the very thing whereat Jesus aimed, to wit, that we should
believe in him as the Son of man, conquering through weakness. For our
former belief was as the mire or shifting sand, because it could give no
firm footing: but our new belief in the Son of man was to be as the rock
whereon we and all others were to stand immovable for ever. But we, at
this present, being, as it were, still on the sand, and not yet aware of
the Rock, how nigh it was at hand, we, I say, knowing in our minds that we
wavered, were notwithstanding desirous to keep our wavering secret;
insomuch that we spake little on this matter one to another, yea, we would
scarce confess it each man to himself: so greatly did we tremble at the
very thought of severing ourselves from Jesus. Yet, for all our
dissembling, Jesus knew our thoughts; even as though he had been seated in
our hearts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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