Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/323

 hood, is said to be smitten by the Lord with blindness. (Zech. xii. 4.) The manger, where the Lord is seen in swaddling clothes, is as superior to the inn where He is not, as the truths of innocence are to the false persuasions of a fallen church, for these are nothing but the filthy garments that conceal the guilt that lurks within.

HAT no literal interpretation can be given to the words "follow me; and let the dead bury their dead," is at once clear to every thoughtful mind; hence we must, to know the Lord's will, pass through the shade of the letter, if we would have a perception of that spirit and life in which the true sense and meaning are alone to be found. A certain Scribe came to Jesus, and said, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest;" to this, Jesus replied, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." (Matt. viii. 19, 20.) The Lord, who knew the thoughts of men, answered all persons, not so much in reference to the words they uttered, as to the thoughts that were passing in their own minds at the time. Hence the answers, being directed more to their thoughts than to their words, are sometimes found to appear remote from the questions put. This is the case in respect to the Scribe's avowal, and the Lord's reply. The Scribe, as appears from the Lord's answer, evidently thought within himself, that by following Jesus,