| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 8 |
Page 7 |
The work of love that is going on in the world is the greatest of all evidences of Christianity. The map of the world tells the story. The missionary map, with its patches of white and black, tells the story. Wherever the gospel goes, love goes, and the things that love does are the evidences. Christianity has built every hospital in the world, every asylum for the insane, every institution of charity, every orphanage, every home for the aged, for the blind, for crippled children. These are the real evidences of Christianity. Every sweet home where love dwells, where Christ’s name is dear, where prayer is offered, is an evidence. Every Christian mother, with her children about her, is an evidence. Some one says, “There is no human force for good or ill equal to the talk of women. They have listeners who have all power in heaven and on earth, for women chiefly are the ones who talk to God and to little children.” Every Christian home, with its teachings, its prayer, and its love, is a shining evidence that Christ is the Son of God.
John was perplexed about the Messiahship of Jesus. It seemed to him that things were not going right with him, that he ought not to have been left in prison if Jesus were really the Messiah. He learned, however, that nothing was really going wrong, that he was not being neglected. John’s continued imprisonment was not in vain. His blood was not shed in vain. The air of the world has been purer ever since. There is no mistake made when your prayers for relief from trouble seem not to be answered; they are answered, though the answer is not the taking away of the trouble, but grace that we may bear it.
The way Jesus dealt with doubt is very interesting and suggestive. He was most patient with it. He pitied men’s weaknesses. There are two kind of doubting. One is skepticism, denial of the facts and truths about Christ and Christianity; the other is only inability to understand – merely questioning to learn. That was the doubt the Baptist had; that was the doubt Thomas had. Christ loves to have us come to him with our questions, our difficulties.
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