The Homilist Luke 12:4-5 And I say to you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.… Methinks I hear an accursed spirit in the nether world crying after death, and saying, "O death, pause, turn back and quench my wretched existence; in yonder world I dreaded thee, I struggled hard against thee — I now invoke thy stroke, a stroke that shall annihilate me for ever!" And methinks I hear death, heartless as ever, saying, "I cannot destroy thee; I never had any power over thine existence; I could wither landscapes, breathe destruction into the face of every green field and forest; I could quench animal life, and have reduced all past generations of men to dust; but I could never touch the soul. The soul, secured in her existence, 'smiled at my dagger and defied the point.' I cannot paralyze memory, I cannot extinguish the fires of conscience, I cannot destroy a soul." (The Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. |
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