The only difficulty is to belt on. The
great object of life in the visible should be to belt on to the
invisible. Our great Example who did this made his ordinary doing
better than common men's best, his parentheses of thought richer than
other men's paragraphs and volumes. And he left on record for us
promises of greater works than these, at which we stagger through
unbelief. We should not; for men who have lived by the evidence of
things not seen, and sought a city that received Jesus out of sight,
have found that "God is not ashamed to be called their God." They have
wrought marvels that men tell over like a rosary of what is possible to
men. It is beyond the belief of all who have not been touched by the
power of an endless life. But what they do is chiefly valuable as
evidence of what they are. It is little that men quench the violence
of fire, and receive their dead raised to life again. It is great that
they are able to do it. That they hold the hand that holds the world
is something. But that they have eyes to see, a wisdom to choose, and
will to execute the best, is more. Fire may kindle again and the
resurrected die, but the great personality survives.
These forces are not discontinuous, connected with this temporary
world, and liable to cease when it fails. They belong to the
permanent, invisible order of things.
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