Those who are of a meek and lamb-like spirit are precisely such as become lovers of the gentle Prophet of Nazareth. Like attracts its like. He is meek and lowly in heart, and therefore those who are like him come to him. The power of his gospel, wherever it is exerted, produces men of such character. Those who came to Christ, when he was upon earth, may have been boisterous enough in their natural dispositions, but after they had received the baptism of his Spirit, they were an inoffensive race. They proclaimed the gospel with boldness, and for their Master they were very valiant, but they rose not in arms against Caesar; they headed no seditions; they were no competitors in the race for power; they shed not blood even to win their liberties; they were examples of suffering affliction and of patience; they were ready to live or to die for the truth, but that truth was love to God and man.
Self pride, greed, wrath, as works of the old nature, they sought to mortify, and it was their daily desire to do good unto all men as they had opportunity. Jesus will always gather such lambs. The world hates them and scatters them, the world ridicules and despises them, but Jesus makes them his bosom friends. The world of old hounded them to death, made them pine in the damps of the catacombs of Rome, or perish among the snows of the Alps, but their glorified Lord gathered them by tens of thousands from the prison, the amphitheater, the stake, the bloody scaffold, and in his blessed bosom they rest in congenial company, forever as the Lord’s lambs are they glorified with the Lamb of God.
From a sermon entitled "Jesus And The Lambs," delivered February 9, 1868. Image by rachel_thecat under Creative Commons License.
No comments:
Post a Comment