Buonaventura (wise and strong himself) used to say,--That
all the learning in the world had never taught him so much as the
sight of Christ upon the cross.
SERMON XXXV. THE ETERNAL MANHOOD
(First Sunday after Easter.)
John xx. 29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen
me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet
have believed.
The eighth day after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared
a second time to his disciples. On this day he strengthened St.
Thomas's weak faith, by giving him proof, sensible proof, that he
was indeed and really the very same person who had been crucified,
wearing the very same human nature, the very same man's body.
'Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.' You
have not seen. You have never beheld with your bodily eyes, or
touched with your bodily hand, as St. Thomas did, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And yet you may be more blessed now, this day, than St.
Thomas was then. We are too apt to fancy, that, to have seen the
Lord with our eyes, to have walked with him, and talked with him, as
the apostles did, was the greatest honour and blessing which could
happen to man. We fancy, perhaps, at times, that if the Lord Jesus
were to come visibly among us now, we should want nothing more to
make us good: that we could not help listening to him, obeying him,
loving him.
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