Once, when touched by material thought, Jesus asked, “Who hath touched me?” Supposing this inquiry to be occasioned by some physical contact, his students answered, “The people throng thee.” Jesus however knew, better than others knew, that it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called for aid. Repeating his inquiry he was answered by the faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples' misconception of it betrayed their materiality. He possessed more spiritual and less material susceptibility than the disciples. Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce opposite results.
Christianity causes men to turn from sense to Soul, as naturally as the flower turns from darkness to light. It appropriates those things which “the eye hath not seen nor the ear heard.” Paul and the spiritual John had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man achieves no worldly honors except by sacrificing for them, so he must gain heavenly riches by forsaking all else. Then he will have nothing in common with the worldling's affections, motives, and aims.
Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and “where his treasure is, there will his heart be also.” If our hopes and affections are spiritual they come from above, not from beneath, and they bear, as of old, the fruits of the Spirit.
Judge not the future advance of Christianity by the few steps already taken, lest ye be condemned for failing to take the first step. Christian learners must always feel the pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the world and be separate. Oppression and the
