Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

^2. For consider, Brethren, the love of this our Head. He is now in heaven, yet does He suffer here, as long as His Church suffers here. Here Christ is hungered, here He is thirsty, is naked, is a stranger, is sick, is in prison. For whatsoever His Body suffers here, He has said that Himself suffers; and at the end, severing off this His Body to the right hand, and severing the rest by whom He is now trodden under foot to the left, He will say to those on the right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” For what deservings? “For I was an hungred, and you gave Me meat;” and so He goes over the rest, as if He had Himself received; to such a degree that they, not understanding it, make answer and say, “Lord, when saw we You an hungred, a stranger, and in prison?” And He says to them, “Forasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of Mine, you have done it unto Me.” So also in our own body, the head is above, the feet are on the earth; yet in any crowding and throng of men, when any one treads on your foot, does not the head say, “You are treading upon me?” No one has trodden on your head, or on your tongue; it is above, in safety, no harm has happened unto it; and yet because by the bond of charity there is unity from the head even to the feet, the tongue does not separate itself therefrom, but says, “You are treading upon me;” when no one has touched it. As then the tongue, which no one has touched, says, “You are treading upon me;” so Christ, the Head, which no one treads on, said, “I was an hungred, and you gave Me meat.” And to them who did not so, He said, “I was an hungred, and you gave Me no meat.” And how did He finish? Thus; “These shall go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal.”