If to live with men, diluted to the millionth degree
with the virtue of the Highest, can exalt and purify the nature, what
bounds can be set to the influence of Christ? To live with
Socrates--with unveiled face--must have made one wise; with Aristides,
just. Francis Assisi must have made one gentle; Savonarola, strong.
But to have lived with Christ must have made one like Christ: that is
to say, _A Christian_.
As a matter of fact, to live with Christ did produce this effect. It
produced it in the case of Paul. And during Christ's lifetime the
experiment was tried in an even more startling form. A few raw,
unspiritual, uninspiring men, were admitted to the inner circle of His
friendship. The change began at once. Day by day we can almost see the
first disciple grow. First there steals over them the faintest
possible adumbration of His character, and occasionally, very
occasionally, they do a thing or say a thing that they could not have
done or said had they not been living there. Slowly the spell of His
Life deepens.
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