Many and Many-Natured Witnesses

Because Christ Himself was so truly and deeply the Wonderful, it was neces.sary that His witnesses, who were also to be the future organs of His Spirit, should be men of broadly varied nature - not copies one of another, like images of clay cast in kindred mould, but differing in mental constitution, experience, spiritual affinities, and faculty of vision. No single man could take in His whole image, or apprehend, in its completeness, unity, and infinite reaches of application, the truth revealed in Him; and therefore the “chosen witnesses” were many and many-natured. And further, as no single flower can show forth all that is in the sun — as it takes the whole bloom of the year to do so, from the first snowdrop that pierces the dark earth to the latest flower of autumn -- SO He needed them ail for the adequate forthtelling of His holy personality.