Parables and Insights - Sundar Singh

Part-III

"In Christ I have found what Hinduism and Buddhism could not give me, peace and joy in this world. People do not believe, because they are strangers to the experience. Once when I was wandering about in the Himalayas, in the region of eternal snow and ice, I came upon some hot springs, and I told a friend about them. He would not believe it. 'How can there be hot springs in the midst of ice and snow?' I said: 'Come and dip your hands in the water, and you will see that I am right.' He came, dipped his hands in the water, felt the heat and believed. Then he said: 'There must be a fire in the mountain. So after he had been convinced by experience his brain began to help him to understand the matter. Faith and experience must come first, and understanding will follow. We cannot understand until we have some spiritual experience, and that comes through prayer. As we practice prayer we shall come to know who the Father is and the Son, we shall become certain that Christ is everything to us and that nothing can separate us from Him and from His Love. Temptations and persecution may come, but nothing can part us from Christ. Prayer is the only way to this glorious experience."
"Our knowledge of Divine Reality depends upon our inner life, and not upon philosophical arguments." "Although Philosophy tries to grasp Divine Reality, it does not succeed. No one can grasp Divine Reality with the intellect." "Jesus began His work, not among philosophers, but with simple fisher folk. The world has seen many learned men and many of them it has already forgotten; but these simple men who helped Jesus Christ in His work will never be forgotten."
It is not God who sends the sinner to hell, it is his own sins. God allows everyone to come to heaven; indeed, He invites everyone most earnestly to come in. But sinners themselves feel that it is a torture to stay there; that is why they do not desire it. God does not make their entrance into heaven either difficult or impossible, no, it is their own inner attitude which makes it impossible for them to have any joy in eternal life."
"The Indian seer lost God in Nature; the Christian mystic, on the other hand, finds God in Nature. The Hindu mystic believes that God and Nature are one and the same; the Christian mystic knows that there must be a Creator to account for the universe."
"When I entered heaven for the first time I looked all round me and then I asked: 'Where is God?' and they answered and said unto me: 'God is seen here as little as on earth for God is infinite. But Christ is here, He is the image of the Invisible God, and only in Him can anyone see God, either here or upon earth."
"Some years ago I saw how a simple countryman was being shown a red glass bottle filled with milk. They asked him what was in the bottle. He said: 'Wine, brandy, whisky.' He could not believe that it was filled with milk until he saw the milk being poured out from it, because he could not see the white colour of the milk owing to the redness of the glass. So it is with the Person of the Saviour. He became Man and His Godhead was hidden in His Humanity. People saw Him tired hungry and thirsty, and they said: 'If He is God, why is He tired, hungry and thirsty, and why does He pray to God?' They saw only His human side, and could not believe that He was really divine. But those who followed Him and lived with Him knew that He was more than human and that He was God.' "
"Some years ago in Tibet I heard a story about a King who wished to send a message to his people. He entrusted the errand to his servants, but they would not do as he wished. The King, who loved his subjects, now, resolved to take the message to them himself in order to be convinced of their difficulties. He could not go there as a king, for he wanted his subjects to speak to him freely of all their sufferings and distresses. So he changed his garments, left off his royal robes, and dressed himself like a poor man. Then he went right among his people and said to them: 'I have been sent by the King in order to learn about all your difficulties. 'The poor and the distressed had confidence in him and told him all their anxieties, and he saw how he could help them. But there were also some proud people who could not bring themselves to believe that such a poor man was really the King's messenger, so they were rude to him and chased him away. Later on the King came to his subjects at the head of his army in all his royal state, and the people could hardly recognise him again nor believe that it was the same person. They said: 'Then he was a poor man and now he is King.' The proud who had despised him were punished and thrown into prison, but those who had been good to him were honoured and their wants relieved. Even so is it with the Word of Life who became man; His people did not see His Glory, and they crucified Him. But the days are coming when we shall see Him in His Glory, and we shall know that He is the same Jesus Christ who lived like a poor man for three-and-thirty years upon this earth."
"Once when I was travelling about in the Himalayas I saw something which made the love of God very real to me. In a Tibetan village I noticed a crowd of people standing under a burning tree and looking up into the branches. I came near and discovered in the branches a bird which was anxiously flying round a nest full of young ones. The mother bird wanted to save her little ones, but she could not. When the fire reached the nest the people waited breathlessly to see what she would do. No one could climb the tree, no one could help her. Now she could easily have saved her own life by flight, but instead of fleeing she sat down on the nest, covering the little ones carefully with her wings. The fire seized her and burnt her to ashes. She showed her love to her little ones by giving her life for them. If then, this little insignificant creature had such love, how much more must our Heavenly Father’s love to His children, the Creator love His creatures!"
Christ speaks: "If you talk with a man who has been born blind about different colours: red, blue, yellow, and their variations, he has no conception of their glory and beauty, and he is quite unable to value them for he only knows about them; he knows their different names, it is true, but he can never have a true idea of the various colours until his eyes are opened. In fact, the colours are quite remote from his experience. Even so is, it with the eyes of the spirit. A man may be as learned as possible; but until he has received his spiritual sight he cannot know me, nor see my glory, nor understand that I am the Incarnate, God.
"It is impossible for us to achieve our own salvation.... Good ethical teaching sounds well, but it accomplishes nothing. A fish which has been caught in a net can see a certain distance before it; it can even move about a little, but it is still a prisoner.... If it tries to work its way out, it realizes still more painfully that it is a prisoner. My studies broadened my mind, but in spite of everything I discovered that I was caught in the net of sin. I am not alone in feeling this; I have met many, many Indians who had forsaken the world, who were living in caves in the jungle where they were striving with all their might to find the way to spiritual freedom; but all their efforts were fruitless. They only became more deeply entangled in the net.... Many of them, however, went on seeking until they found Christ.... Christ broke the fetters of sin, and they were free."
"If the little chicken in the egg were to declare that nothing existed outside the egg, and its mother were to reply: 'No, in the outside world there are mountains, flowers, and blue sky,' and the little chicken were to reply: 'You are talking nonsense, I can't see any of these things,' and if the shell were to break suddenly, then the little chicken would see that his mother was right. It is just the same with us, we are still in the shell, and we see neither heaven nor hell. But one day the shell will break, and then we shall see. At the same time there are hints of the future state: the little chicken in the shell has eyes and wings, which are in themselves a sufficient proof that they will be needed for a future life. The eye is created for seeing, yet what can it see while it is in the shell? The wings are created for flying, but how can it fly while it is in the shell? It is quite clear that neither eyes nor wings are intended for a cramped life within the limits of a shell. In the same way, we have many desires and longings which can never be satisfied here. There must be so me way of satisfying them, however, and this opportunity is Eternity. But just as the little chicken needs to be kept warm as long as it is in the shell, so while we live in this world we have to be cherished and warmed by the brooding Presence and Fire of the Holy Spirit."
"Other teachers who know that they will have to leave this world are anxious that their teaching should continue to live in written form when oral instruction is no longer possible. But Christ is quite different. He never dreamt of leaving us alone, and He will be with us to the end of the world; therefore He did not need to leave any written word behind. Then there is another reason why He wrote nothing. If He had written something in a book, men would have bowed down and worshipped it, instead of worshipping the Lord Himself. God's Word is only a hand stretched out to point the way to the Lord who is the Truth and the Life." "The Life and the Spirit of the Lord can only be written in the hearts of men, and not in books."
"In the mountains the rushing streams make their own river bed along which they flow; but in the plains men have to work hard to make canals, in order that the water may flow along them. It is just the same with those who live upon the heights with God. The Holy Spirit streams through them freely, while those who give little time to prayer and communion with God have to find their way with much labour and effort."