He nowise abandoned his conviction that whatever good he sought to
do or lent himself to aid must be effected entirely by individual
influence. He had little faith in societies, regarding them chiefly
as a wretched substitute, just better than nothing, for that help
which the neighbour is to give to his neighbour. Finding how the
unbelief of the best of the poor is occasioned by hopelessness in
privation, and the sufferings of those dear to them, he was
confident that only the personal communion of friendship could make
it possible for them to believe in God. Christians must be in the
world as He was in the world; and in proportion as the truth
radiated from them, the world would be able to believe in Him. Money
he saw to be worse than useless, except as a gracious outcome of
human feelings and brotherly love. He always insisted that the
Saviour healed only those on whom his humanity had laid hold; that
he demanded faith of them in order to make them regard him, that so
his personal being might enter into their hearts. Healing without
faith in its source would have done them harm instead of good--would
have been to them a windfall, not a Godsend; at best the gift of
magic, even sometimes the power of Satan casting out Satan. But he
must not therefore act as if he were the only one who could render
this individual aid, or as if men influencing the poor individually
could not aid each other in their individual labours.
Pages:
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589