Witnesses for Christ
HE followers of Christ are so identified with their Master that everything they do affects His cause. He depends upon them for their help in all His work. On His cross, as He died, Jesus said: “It is finished.” His work was done; redemption was complete. But when He returned to His glory He left His disciples on the earth, and their part was to carry the good news to all men. For this they were responsible. This responsibility is ours in the present age. If we have received the news we are, by virtue of this very fact, divinely commissioned to bear it to others. “Let him that heareth say, Come.”
George Macdonald tells of a boy who wished
he could become a painter that he might help
God paint His clouds and sunsets. God needs
no help of human hands in painting the splendor of the evening skies, but He does want us to help Him in putting touches of heavenly beauty upon other lives. Consciously or unconsciously we are all the while either helping or hindering Christ in His work. Every day we either honor His name or dishonor it in what we do or in what we do not do. Before Jesus went away from earth He told His disciples that they should be His witnesses. This referred not only to the words they should speak concerning Him, but to every influence of their lives. Sometimes in a court trial a great deal depends upon what one particular witness may say. Men are brought long distances to testify in certain cases because of the importance of what they know. The other day a witness journeyed all the way from South America to the United States to occupy the witness stand for but five minutes, to answer only two or three questions. Recently several distinguished men travelled a thousand miles to say a few words in court regarding the personal character of [154] mtmm for C^risst
an accused man and his standing and reputation for integrity in his former home. None of us know how much we owe to the testimony of our neighbors concerning us, the good words they speak of us, the kindly mention they make of the things we do. If false or calumnious things are said of us by an enemy, the testimony of those who know us in our everyday life is our sole refuge. Our reputation is the composite of all the things that people who see much of us and know our daily lives witness concerning us. We are Christ’s witnesses. In His earthly life He had many enemies who sought to injure Him. They made many charges against Him. They accused Him of being an impostor. His disciples were His witnesses. They knew Him intimately. They had lived with Him in closest relations, day after day, month after month. If there had been anything evil in His life, anything untrue or inconsistent, they would have known it. After He had gone they were sent out to testify to His life and character. They were to tell all men what they knew [155] a ieatt (BarDen
about Him. The world must learn the truth about Jesus, else it would not accept Him as Saviour and Lord. It was very important that His disciples should declare what they knew about Him. On their words Christianity was to be founded. If they spoke doubtingly, if they failed to be faithful in their witnessing, if they withheld any part of the truth which they were to tell, the mission of Christ would fail. They had all the purposes and hopes of redemption in their hands. Christ had done His part, and now had committed all to these men. His witnesses. It was essential that they should prove true witnesses, speaking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Him.
Now we are the successors of the first disciples and the witnesses for our own time. The world needs to-day a proclamation of Christ which we only can make. Every generation must have its own witnesses. What was said about Him by His friends nineteen hundred years ago will not be testimony enough for this year. New questions are al- [156]
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ways arising, and each must have its own answer. The friends of Christ to-day must be His present-day witnesses. Past faithfulness was beautiful in its time, but the world must be shown like faithfulness now. There have been heroisms and devotions in every century, splendid testimonies to the faith of Christ’s friends in that century, but it will not be enough to point to these when men ask us in this twentieth century for evidences of Christianity which will satisfy them. Christ must have his witnesses among those who now confess His name.
Some of us would like to choose for ourselves our place of witnessing. It is easy to rise among Christian people on a quiet Sunday and say, “I am a Christian, too.” But it may be harder to stand up to-morrow among those who do not love Christ and say the same words. A young man finds himself the only Christian in the office where he works. He shrinks from showing his colors there. But he is the only one Christ has in that office. If he should fail to witness for his Master in the [157] a f eart (!5ai;Den
presence of the men who are there they will fail to hear about Christ, perhaps will be lost for want of a word, and the blame will be his. Christ knows where He needs us and our service, and we should never fail Him wherever we are.
We do not know the harm we may do any day by our failure to speak the word our Master wants us to speak. We are often warned of the hurt our careless words may give to a gentle heart. We should beware also of careless silences when weary ones need the cheer, the comfort, the kindness we could speak. Many of our worst failures as witnesses for Christ are in not doing the things we ought to have done.
“/ might have said a word of cheer
Before I let him go.
His weary vision haunts me yet;
But how could I foreknoio That slighted chance would be the last
To me in mercy given?
My utmost yearnings cannot send
That word from earth to heaven.
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“I might have looked the love I felt;
My brother had sore need Of that for which — too shy or proud, —
He lacked the speech to plead.
But self is near and self is strong,
And I was blind that day;
He sought within my careless eyes
And went, athirst, away.
“0 word and look and clasp withheld!
0 brother-heart, now stilled!
Dear life, forever out of reach,
1 might have warmed and filled!
Talents misused and seasons lost.
O’er which I mourn in vain — A waste as barren to my tears
As desert sands to rain.’
A Settlement worker found a young Christian girl in a very unhappy state of mind because she had to work in a mill when she wanted to study and “get up a little.” She was a worthy girl, capable of making a good deal of her life. But at present her home needed her help, and it was impossible, therefore, for her to give up her uncongenial work. [159] a icart (KarDen
The friend gave the girl a book which she thought might help her, and left her to work out the problem for herself. The book suggested certain things the girl might do, even in the mill, to make her life splendidly worth while.
“You know,” she said one day, “there is only one of the twelve girls in my room who is a Christian.” “Well,” suggested her friend, “there is your opportunity.” Since then the girl has not only been happy and at peace herself, but she has brought several of the girls to Christ and spoken to others who are interested. She accepted her assignment, became Christ’s witness, and the noisy, uncongenial mill has become a place of glad service. Witnessing for Christ is not all done in words. Much of the best of it is in life, in disposition, in the way we bear trials, in patient endurance of pain or suffering. We always represent our Master, and in every phase of our experience are His witnesses. It is well to be among His friends in the place of prayer — we confess Him when we gather [160] thus with His faithful ones; but we are to confess Him also when we go out among men. Our faces should by their shining show that we have been with God and have been strengthened and blessed.
“One prayed aloud his thanks, and many
heard — But when he passed forth from the house oj
prayer He wore upon his face his secrets bare, While those who met him sighed, and thought
with pain Of all the year had lost them, of the reign Of grief and sorrow on this earth of ours.
“One wore upon his face the smile of peace, As if he held communion close with God, And loved the world and all who on it trod; And those who met him smiled, and thought how
fair The world must be to him — and straightway
there Rose in their hearts a glad thanksgiving hymn!”
Such witnessing for Christ means ofttimes
more than any words one may speak. We do
not know how we may cheer and strengthen others by a look of quiet peace on our faces when we go about among people. An unhappy face in a Christian does not tell of victory in life’s stiniggles and does not commend Christ to those one meets. But a face irradiated by an indwelling joy, shining with the light of trust and confidence, is a testimony wherever it is seen to the love and peace and power of Christ.
Confessing Christ in church services is right, but we must continue our witnessing when we go out into the world. This is not always easy. The Rev. J. H. Jowett tells of a man who attended a meeting and said, a few days afterward: “I was never so blessed and lifted up in soul in my life as I was that hour. It was like being in heaven. But,” he went on, “unfortunately, I had to be at work at six o’clock next morning, and before eight I was wondering what the preacher of last night would say about living a Christian life if he had to be in our factory as I have to be.” It may not be easy to go on Monday morning, after [162]
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a quiet, spiritual Sunday, into a mill or store, or into the busy mart, to meet with all sorts and conditions of men, and continue our faithfulness and the fervor and rapture of our devotion. But, nevertheless, we are to be Christ’s witnesses in our Monday places of work as truly as in our Sunday places of worship. When the power of the Holy Spirit is in us, the noise of a factory, the rush of business, or the cares of a mother’s life in her home will not break the spirit and sweetness of the life we are living for our Lord. Any one can be devout at the communion or in a meeting for prayer, where there is nothing to distract or annoy him, nothing to excite or trouble him. The real problem, however, is to carry the peace of God and the spirit of Christ out into the fret, worry, and noise of the week days. But this is not impossible. The presence of Christ is as really with us on the weekdays when we are at our common tasks as it is on Sundays when we are at our devotions.
True, we cannot make heaven yet for our- [163] a ieart mvUzn
selves in this life of struggle and care. At the best we shall have our failures, our defeats, our stumblings, will make mistakes, and will not reach our high ideal. But here is the test: Do we go on fighting, striving, undiscouraged in our hard days here, just as determined to reach our ideal after a day of failure as we were when we set out in the morning? Charles Kingsley presents well the human side of the Christian life in these words: “Oh, at least be able to say in that day: ‘Lord, I am no hero. I have been careless, cowardly, sometimes all but mutinous. Punishment I have desened, I deny it not. But a traitor I have never been. I have tried to fight on thy side in thy battle against evil. I have tried to do the duty which lay nearest to me; and to leave whatever thou didst commit to my charge a little better than I found it. I have not been good, but I have at least tried to be good.’”
This every young Christian should be able to
say. He cannot say less and be loyal to his
Master. Yet he cannot say more while he is
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still in this world, beset with infirmities. He will live no day perfectly, yet he will never give up striving to become perfect. Every morning the Master says to us anew, “You shall be My witnesses to-day.” A hundred times before nightfall we shall have our opportunities to witness. The opportunities will come to men in their business. They must be honest, they must think of the man with whom they are dealing. If they deceive him in a bargain, if they tell him a falsehood, if they drive a sharp trade, they may chuc*kle over their shrewdness, but they cannot look Christ in the face in the evening and be at peace. The opportunity comes to the women in their home life and social life. They must be patient, sweet, un fretted amid the irritations, provocations, annoyances, and trials of household care, in contacts with neighbors, in disagreeable situations, in perplexing social experiences. “What do ye more than others?” suggests the standard of Christian life. You are to be a little more patient, kind, thoughtful, sweet, than the women who are [165] at ieatt (KatDen
not Christians. You are to do things which nobody but a Christian would do, and do them in a way that only a Christian would do them.
We represent Christ wherever we go. He is not here to-day in human form, but He sends us in his place. We are to act for Him, speak the words of kindness He would speak if He were here, do the deed of love He would do if He were in our place. We must be faithful to our mission. We must never be silent when we ought to speak. We must never speak when we ought to be silent.
(Buavntti from tumbling
“Our feet from falling? — yes; our eyes from tears f We do not know! Not always richest in the sunniest years Our harvests grow.
“Our hearts are stony, like our native soil — The tears of pain, Wrung from our eyes by bitter grief and toil, The softening rain.
“Yet pray we still. Lord, though Thou bidst us weep; Thy sun appears Breaking through clouds of sorrow, thou wilt keep Our eyes from tears.’’