Gospel Quotes - page 24
As I see it, all questions regarding the factual accuracy of Biblical statements-notably such ‘miraculous' events as Virgin Birth, Resurrection, etc.-are wholly irrelevant to the true issues. Indeed, I should go so far as to say myself that the whole value of the Gospel story to mankind-and it is very great-lies not in its historical but in its legendary, mythical, or ‘typical' character. It is not, I think, the Sermon on the Mount-or at least not this alone-that constitutes the peculiar contribution of Christianity to human thought, for very similar maxims are to be found elsewhere, and in any event could be deduced from first principles. It is to be found, rather, in the affirmation that all that is best and highest in man, as typified in the person of Jesus, is bound to arouse opposition, is often persecuted and apparently destroyed-yet is in fact indestructible and does perennially ‘rise again', triumphant over seeming disaster.
Leslie Weatherhead
Go, then, young men, where glory waits you. The field is the world. Go where the abjects wander, and gather them into the fold of the sanctuary. Go to the lazarettos where the moral lepers herd, and tell them of the healing balm. Go to the haunts of crime, and float a gospel message upon the feculent air. Go wherever there are ignorant to be instructed, timid to be cheered, and helpless to be succored, and stricken to be blessed, and erring to be reclaimed. Go wherever faith can see, or hope can breathe, or love can work, or courage can venture. Go and win the spurs of your spiritual knighthood there.
William Morley Punshon