Christ's invisible Church
as referred to in Scripture, and to the Saviour's humanity and divinity
as they seem to me conspicuous in Scripture, and so you have done me
justice and the American has done me injustice....
Well, I have seen your Mrs. Brotherton, only once, though, because she
can't come to see me at all, and lives too far for me to go in the
winter weather. I shall see more of her presently, I hope, and in the
meantime she is very generous to me, and sends me violets, and notes
that are better, and we have a great sympathy on the spiritual subjects
which set you so in a passion. What do I say? She sends me Greek (of
which she does not know a single character), written by her, or rather
_through_ her; mystical Greek, from a spirit-world, produced by her
hands, she herself not knowing what she writes. The character is
beautifully written, and the separate words are generally correct--such
words as 'Christ,' 'God,' 'tears,' 'blood,' 'tempest,' 'sea,' 'thunder,'
'calm,' 'morning,' 'sun,' 'joy.' No grammatical construction hitherto,
but a significant sort of grouping of the separate words, as if the
meaning were struggling out into coherence. My idea is that she is being
exercised in the language, in the _character_, in order to fuller
expression hereafter. Well, you would have us snowed upon with poppies
till we sleep and forget these things. I, on the contrary, would have
our eyes wide open, our senses 'all attentive,' our souls lifted in
reverential expectation. Every _fact_ is a word of God, and I call it
irreligious to say, 'I will deny this because it displeases me.' 'I will
look away from that because it will do me harm.' Why be afraid of the
_truth_? God is in the truth, and He is called also Love. The evil
results of certain experiences of this class result mainly from the
superstitions and distorted views held by most people concerning the
spiritual world. We have to learn--we in the body--that Death does not
teach all things. Death is simply an accident. Foolish Jack Smith who
died on Monday, is on Tuesday still foolish Jack Smith. If people who on
Monday scorned his opinions prudently, will on Tuesday receive his least
words as oracles, they very naturally may go mad, or at least do
something as foolish as their inspirer is. Also, it is no argument
against any subject, that it drives people mad who suffer themselves to
be absorbed in it. That would be an argument against all religion, and
all love, b
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