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Selected Messages Book 1
theme of salvation is inexhaustible. The work has gone forward from
century to century, setting forth the life and character of Christ, and
the love of God as manifested in the atoning sacrifice. The theme of
redemption will employ the minds of the redeemed through all eternity.
There will be new and rich developments made manifest in the plan of
salvation throughout eternal ages.
Were Jesus with us today, He would say to us as He did to His
disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now” (
John 16:12
). Jesus longed to open before the minds
of His disciples deep and living truths, but their earthliness, their
clouded, deficient comprehension made it impossible. They could not
be benefited with great, glorious, solemn truths. The want of spiritual
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growth closes the door to the rich rays of light that shine from Christ.
We shall never reach a period when there is no increased light for us.
The sayings of Christ were always far-reaching in their import. Those
who heard His teachings with their preconceived opinions, could not
take in the meaning attached to His utterances. Jesus was the source,
the originator of truth.
The great themes of the Old Testament were misapprehended and
misinterpreted, and Christ’s work was to expound the truth which had
not been understood by those to whom they had been given. The
prophets had made the statements, but the spiritual import of what
they had written, was undiscovered by them. They did not see the
meaning of the truth. Jesus reproved His disciples for their slowness
of comprehension. Many of His precious lessons were lost to them,
because they did not understand the spiritual grandeur of His words.
But He promised that the Comforter should come, that the Spirit of
truth should recall these lost utterances to their minds. He gave them to
understand that He had left with them precious jewels of truth whose
value they did not know.
Precious Gems in Mines of Truth
After the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, His disciples
listened with wonder and amazement to His lessons of truth; for they
seemed as new ideas to them; but He told them, “These are the words
which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you Then opened he their
understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (
Luke 24:44,