| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 4 |
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Think what the friendship of Jesus did for his disciples. They were not great men, wise or cultured. Dr. W.J. Dawson says of him, “He spent his wealth of intellect upon inferior persons – fishermen and the like, who did not comprehend one tithe of what he said.” This means that his personality was the chief power of attraction in him, that his gentleness, faith, and goodness were more influential than even his gracious words. The apostles were drawn and influenced, no doubt, more by the man himself than by the greatness of his words. Men who could not understand his wonderful teachings were blessed, comforted, cheered, and uplifted by the power of his personality. It was wonderful how they were transformed, made great by their companionship with this “Poet of Galilee.”
Take Peter. When he was first brought to him, Jesus saw a man full of faults – rude, undisciplined, unlettered, rash, and impetuous. Nobody dreamed of the rough, blustering old fisherman as having any promise of good, of beauty, or of greatness in him. Nobody thought he would be on of the earth’s strongest men in future years, with influence reaching all over the world. But the moment Jesus saw him he said, “Thou art Simon: thou shalt be called Peter.”
He saw in this man of the fishing boat possibilities of large-heartedness, of noble leadership, of power and influence, of sublime apostleship. We know what Simon was in his rude beginnings, and what he became through Christ’s making of him. Had Jesus not found him and become his friend, he would have lived and died as a rough, uncultured fisherman, for a few years casting his nets into the Sea of Galilee, then dying unhonoured, and being buried in an unmarked grave beside the lake. His name never would have been known in the world. All that Peter is today is the fruit of the friendship of Christ for him.
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