The God-Man 81 are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). One of the last promises of our Lord was, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20). No perverse criticism can explain away these assurances; they guarantee the perpetual, personal presence of Jesus with all His disciples to the end of time. And this idea had a wonderful influence over the thoughts and actions of the men whom Jesus inspired. They lived as those who were perpetually under their Lord’s eye. Thus one speaks in the name of a ll: “Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent [from Christ as to his bodily presence, see 6 and 8], we may be accepted of Him [Christ]” (2 Cor. 5 :9). Though denied His bodily presence, His divine they knew to be ever with them; hence they labored to please Him, and the best wish they could breathe for each other was, “The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit” (2 Tim. 4:22). And John saw Him in vision ever holding the ministerial stars in His right hand, and walking in the midst of the golden lamps—the churches. (Rev. 2:1.) But how can we explain such representations as these, if Messiah be possessed of but one nature—th e human, which must of necessity be local and limited as to its presence ? Who is this that is always with His disciples in ail countries at the same moment, but the Infinite One in a human form? We feel His presence; we know He is with us; and in this fact we have evidence that He is more than a man. The line of argument we have been pursuing is by no means exhausted, but our space is filled. Every time we read the New Testament through, we detect new illustrations of the force of the testimony illustrated in this paper. Let the reader re-peruse for himself the sacred record with an eye to the hints which we have thrown out. Let him weigh again the old familiar phrases in which the Lord speaks, or is spoken of, and ask himself how he can explain them on any other
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