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 he had made an end of reading, Jesus began to exhort the people,
saying that he was sent to proclaim good news, to release the captive,
give health to the sick, and light to the blind, and to bring Redemption
to Israel. God, he said, loved all; not the good alone, but even the bad:
yea, God was in very truth our Father in heaven. Therefore how much soever
the kindest father on earth may love his children, albeit they transgress
against him, much more is the love of God toward us though we be sinners.
He did not tell us that we were not sinful; nay rather, he made it clear
to us that our sins were as red as blood in the sight of the All‐seeing;
but none the less, he called us the children of God. As many as would
repent should be forgiven; and he spake as if he himself had a certain
divine power of forgiveness whereby he might purify the soul and bring us
close to God, one family in the presence of our Father. One thing was
needful, that we should trust in him and in his message. This day, he
said, this very day, are the prophecies of Redemption fulfilled in your
ears. Then he cried aloud unto all that were hungering or thirsting for
righteousness, all that were weary of the burden of their sins, all that
felt themselves utterly hopeless, friendless, and vile, bidding them
resort to him as their refuge: “Come unto me all ye that are weary and
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
While he was speaking, methought I was not hearing words, but seeing
somewhat that might be seen and touched; so solid seemed the mercies of
God, even as a rock whereon one standeth. For Jesus ever testified of the
Father as one testifieth that knoweth by experience, and spake of heaven
as of that which he had known and felt. Yea, and more than that; a certain
strange power was in him to make things invisible to seem visible by his
discourse. Wherefore, albeit Moses had called God the Father of the
spirits of all flesh, and the Prophets also had taught Israel to say unto
God, “Thou art our Father,” and all this doctrine was well known and trite
among us; yet now, for the first time, the doctrine seemed to be no more a
mere dead letter, but a living word. Such a life did Jesus of Nazareth
breathe into it, insomuch that his Good News (for so he called it) came
upon our hearts as news indeed, never heard before among the children of
men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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