Romans 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God… For an example of heroic devotion let us go, not to our own sacred book, but to a heathen story in the "Mahabharat." Have you read of Yodhishtera, the stainless king, who, on account of his pure life and tender pity for all that lives, is allowed to enter heaven without tasting death? But, arrived in the presence of the immortal gods, he misses the faces of brothers and friends whom he had loved and lost, and bliss is not blissful to him, and he cries, "Show me those souls; I cannot tarry where I bare them not. Heaven is there where love and faith make heaven; let me go. I do desire," he said, "that region, be it of the blest, as this, or of the sorrowful, some other where, where my dear brothers are. So where they have gone there will I surely go." He quits the heaven he has gained, and hellwards turns. But while he traverses the place of dread, again the angels invite his return. He answers, "Go to those thou servest tell them I come not thither; say I stand here, in the throat of hell, and here will abide, nay, even perish, if my well-beloved may win ease and peace by any pain of mine." Are we going backward? Have we no passion for saving? — no sympathy with the "them also I must bring"? "Heaven is not heaven to one alone; Save thou one soul, and thou mayest save thine own." (Mrs. E. Campagnac.) Parallel Verses KJV: That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. |
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