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The saying was hidden from them


Thurs­day. [I Tim. 6:17-21; Luke 18:31-34] The Lord told the dis­ci­ples a­bout His suf­fer­ing, but they did not un­der­stand any­thing He was say­ing; This say­ing was hid from them. Later, the faith­ful de­ter­mined not to know any thing, save Je­sus Christ, and him cru­ci­fied (I Cor. 2:2). The time had not come, they did not un­der­stand any of this mys­tery; but when the time came — they un­der­stood, and taught ev­ery­one, and in­ter­pret­ed for ev­ery­one. This hap­pens with ev­ery­one, not on­ly with re­la­tion to this mys­tery, but to all the oth­er mys­ter­ies as well. What is not un­der­stood in the be­gin­ning, with time be­comes un­der­stood; it is as if a ray of light en­ters the con­scious­ness and bright­ens what was for­mer­ly dark. Who elu­ci­dates it? The Lord Him­self, the grace of the Spir­it that lives in the faith­ful, one’s guard­ian an­gel — on­ly in no way the per­son him­self. He is a re­cip­i­ent, and not the cause. On the oth­er hand, an­oth­er thing may re­main in­com­pre­hen­si­ble for one’s whole life — not on­ly for in­div­id­u­als, but for all of hu­man­i­ty. Man is sur­round­ed by things he does not un­der­stand — some are ex­plain­ed to him in the course of his life, while oth­ers are left un­til the next life, where it will be seen. This ap­plies even to minds en­light­ened by God. Why is it not re­veal­ed here? Be­cause some things are in­com­pre­hen­si­ble, so there is no point in talk­ing a­bout them; oth­ers are not told out of con­sid­er­a­tions for health — that is, it would be harm­ful to know pre­ma­ture­ly. Much will be­come clear in the oth­er life, but oth­er sub­jects and oth­er mys­ter­ies will be re­veal­ed. For a cre­ated mind there is nev­er a sur­plus of in­scru­ta­ble mys­ter­ies. The mind rebels a­gainst these bonds: but wheth­er you reb­el or not, you can­not sev­er the bonds of mys­tery. Be­come hum­ble, proud mind, be­neath the strong hand of God — and be­lieve!


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