Always has the Word been making all things, and always will he be
making.
Always has the Spirit been proceeding, and always will the Spirit be
proceeding, from the Word and from the Father of the Word, giving
their light and their life to men.
St. John's message will last for ever; and therefore he tells it
slowly and deliberately, knowing that no time can change what he has
to say; for it is the good news of the Word, Jesus Christ, who is the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, because he is God of very God,
eternally in the bosom of the Father.
Now St. John, who writes thus simply and quietly, was no weak or soft
person. He was one of the two whom the Lord surnamed Boanerges, the
Son of Thunder--the man of the loud and awful voice. Painters have
liked to draw St. John as young, soft, and feminine, because he was
the Apostle of Love. I beg you to put that sentimental notion out of
your minds, and to remember that the only hint which Holy Scripture
gives us about St. John's person is, that he was 'a Son of Thunder;'
that his very voice, when he chose, was awful; that he, and his
brother James, before they were converted, were not of a soft, but of
a terrible temper; that it was James and John, the Sons of Thunder,
who wanted to call down thunder and lightning from heaven on all the
villages who would not receive the Lord.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161