The Gospel
Thomas Jones. Galatians 4:13 You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first. I have been delighted, on a calm summer's evening, to hear the tones of a sweet human voice borne to my ears from the other side of the valley. The shadows of the evening were around me, the birds had gone to their rest, a sadness was over the land; not a sound was heard save that voice, singing some tender Welsh air. The voice wandered among the hills, or seemed to linger in the eaves; then it trembled among the branches; by and by it became more powerful as it passed over the clear plain below. There was in it an indescribable pathos — it was a sigh swelling into a song — and it created in me unutterable longings for the perfect good, for that state in which life is musical, harmonious, and not filled with wild, discordant notes, as our present life is. The gospel resembles that voice, it comes to us trembling with Divine love; a tender, melting, pathetic voice, speaking of God and His love and His heaven, and the blessedness that shall be revealed. (Thomas Jones.) Parallel Verses KJV: Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. WEB: but you know that because of weakness of the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time.