2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold,
the new has come.
The new
step has been taken and is being taken. Already the new men are dotted here and
there all over the earth. Some, as I have admitted, are still hardly recognizable:
but others can be recognized. Every now and then one meets them. Their very
voices and faces are different from ours: stronger, quieter, happier, more
radiant. They begin where most of us leave off. They are, I say, recognizable;
but you must know what to look for. They will not be very like the idea of
'religious people' which you have formed from your general reading. They do not
draw attention to themselves. You tend to think that you are being kind to them
when they are really being kind to you. They love you more than other men do,
but they need you less. (We must get over wanting to be needed: in some goodish
people, specially women, that is the hardest of all temptations to resist.)
They will usually seem to have a lot of time: you will wonder where it comes
from. When you have recognized one of them, you will recognize the next one much
more easily. And I strongly suspect (but how should I know?) that they recognize
one another immediately and infallibly, across every barrier of color, sex,
class, age, and even of creeds. In that way, to become holy is rather like
joining a secret society. To put it at the very lowest, it must be
great fun.
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