Believers Are Witnesses

“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.”

Christianity, as being from God, the sovereign Ruler of the Universe, asks no patronage from the great of this world. Learning, rank, opulence and power, which have weight elsewhere, are as nothing here. As if to show this in the strongest possible manner, God chose to estabUsh his Church of the new dispensation in absolute neglect of all such auxiliaries. He might have gained over the sagest of the Porch, the Academy, or the Lyceum, the professors of Tarsus and Alexandria, or the rabbins of Tiberias. He might have arrayed his evangelists in imperial purple, and heralded his gospel by lictors and sound of trmnpet.

* New York, June 20, 1858.

He might have caused princely armies to trample down opposing nations; “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world and things which are despised, hath Go*d chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.” And hence, even when, in the progress of ages, the Church has subsidized many of these very influences, she has received them as followers, and never jdelded them homage. Christianity has now so entrenched itself within the science, the letters, the public institutions, and the kindly afiections of mankind, that it looks with a benignant pity on mistaken creatures, who condescendingly talk as if evangelical truth, by their good leave, was not so bad a thing, and as if, with a hberal construction and some reserves, the Bible might, after all, be received even by liberal thinkers. The decayed Hidalgo, who stalks proudly in rags which his ancestral cloak scarcely hides, is not more ridiculous in his pride. Nay, the king who emerges from the straw of Bedlam, bowing as he yields sufiferance and admission to his keepers, is quite as rational in his supercilious complacency. After a thousand battle-fields, amidst innumerable trophies. Revelation sits as a queen. From every nation and in every dialect, the wise and great flock to do her homage. The banks of the Nile and the Tigris, the monuments of Judea and the catacombs of Rome continually augment the glorious accumulation of their evidence. The scholarship and philosophy of the world are on the side of the Cross. And yet, over against our host of confessors, our Bacons, Pascals, Newtons, Henrys and Owens, we descry puny figures coming forward to lend the shelter and countenance of their insignificant pennon! And who, forsooth, are they, that the “Virgin daughter of Zion” should ask, or even brook their aid? By what names are these called, who are thus eager to inform us of their tolerance of Jesus, and their good opinion of the Lord of hosts? Peradventure some sciohst, undisciplined in any one severe science, undrilled in any ancient tongue, unfamihar even with the books of Scripture, but pert and voluble at counters, tables, clubs and drawing-rooms, and admired in his flippant cavil by groups more ignorant than himself. Or, it may be, some narrow pedant, all behind the age, who has dozed in the cave of the Seven Sleepers, while the world has been rolling on, and who in his simpHcity is ignorant that the materiahsm and philosophism of Voltaire, D’Alembert, Vol’ ney and Diderot, are just as vahd, even with decent infidels, as alchemy, magic, or the humoral pathology. Who cares (except in commiseration for his foolish soul) what such a one thinks of Christianity? Or the voice of complaisance toward our holy religion may issue from some back-shop or foul attic, where, among licentious verse and graphic abomination, the thumbed and smutched volumes, redolent of Birmingham or the collieries, bear the grosser names of Paine, Carlisle, or Holyoake. This is generally emigrant deism, and its converts among us are fished up from the filthiest pools, where drink and unthrift lie alongside of brutal ignorance or incorrigible stupidity. Shall I add to the list those apostates from Christianity, who, though bred in evangelical churches, never felt the power of grace, smarted under correction of their secret sins, found it their interest to prove that the murderer and the demon should be happy in heaven, kicked at the goads of reproof and overleaped the fence of mystery; the renegade Christians, who have betaken themselves to a scheme as much Mohammedan as Christian, to a Scripture without

infallible truth, to a Cross without expiation, to a salvation without Christ? From any, from all of these, we reject the proffer of ostentatious aid. We would gladly give them of our stores; but save us from their patronage! Not by such attestation is heavenly Wisdom justified.

There is something like pusillanimity in the warmth with which certain professors of Christianity chuckle over every little good word doled forth in its behalf by men who scarcely know its tenets, and five in defiance of its commands; while the same weak friends of the cause overlook the testimony of miUiohs, who have best known the reality of religion because they experienced it, and have yielded the strongest attestation by adhering to the faith. Infidelity shows no such throng of believers, confessors, dying saints and martyrs, as, with perpetual augmentation, have been avowing, age after age, the power of grace. These, these are the witnesses. When, with nervous trepidation, distrustful of your own cause, you betake you to the others, and pick up the paltry concessions of deists and heretics, it is as if you should call in a chance New Zealander or Esquimaux, who had descried the distant smoke of a propeller on his waste seas, to gain his testimony concerning the existence and value of a steam navigation which fills our harbour. Let them testify of what they know; of our heavenly Wisdom they know as little as “the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, and the owl,” unclean birds all, sweeping over the desert where the tabernacle reposed, knew of the awful contents of the ark of the covenant. The testimony which such people give to religion, taken with its accompaniments, is often as horrible as it is ridiculous. A miserable suicide leaves his judgment that the Bible is true. The most misanthropic of all sensualists, Rousseau, to his elegant but poisonous confessions of lust and lying, adds a tribute to Jesus Christ, whom he prefers, O marvellous complaisance, to Socrates! It is about a hundred years since Earl Ferrers, an EngHsh nobleman, was carried to the scaffold for his second murder. On his way the minister of religion tendered to him the admonitions and consolations which it is usual for aristocratic and plebeian felons to receive; but the school which taught him murder had also taught him deism: he haughtily rejected the good offices. But then, not to be too cruelly grand, and as if to spare the humbled feelings of Christianity, he deigned to say, that he believed in a God, and that he had always thought the Lord’s Prayer a useful composition.* Such is the commendation which some are fain to chronicle, from the condescending admissions of absurd and immoral men. Let all such lie silent in their original worthlessness, while a healthful love of truth leads us to suspect and avoid organs to which the light of noon is repugnant. We do not require the tardy, reluctant tribute of minds which still reject our heavenly Master. Mate and even Judas may yield testimony to innocence, and we own the power of conscience; but it is to the faithful eleven that Jesus says, “Ye shall be my witnesses.” And this leads me to turn suddenly from the false witnesses to the true; from those who yield a reluctant, insufficient and insincere testimony, to those who speak in honom- of the truth with heartiness and acclamation; from outside lookers-on to believing inmates and loving children. Let us, then, reflect on the meaning of these words which the Lord addresses to his people: Ye are my witnesses.

The truth to be considered and applied is, that all true Christians are witnesses for God. And here it is hardly requisite to premise, that there is a sense in which God asks no attestation. He is himself the infinite source of all authority and the fountain of honour. Were all systems of planets, with all their inhabitants, and every thinking, active creature, smitten and turned

* Walpole’s Letters.

back into nothing, the self-existent, independent Jehovah would still be glorious, in the mutual comprehension of the Divine Persons, to all eternity. But the Most High, in the communicative flowing out of his love, has come forth in creation, for the very purpose of reflecting his rays upon the intelligent moral beings whom he formed by his power. Of all it may be said, “For thy glory they are, and were created.” Of human subjects God declares: “This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise.” Such is the grand intention of the method of grace. Souls are saved, that they may eternally laud and magnify the riches of divine excellency; “that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.” Salvation, when consummate, will prove to have had this end, the exhibition of wisdom, power and love; “that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus.” Indeed, this reverberation of God’s praise is the office of all creatures, animate and inanimate, being what is fitly named his declarative glory. And all this declaration, whether vocal or silent, may be considered as a witness-bearing, which has this pre-eminence in children of God, that it is the tribute of holy love and gratitude. Every true believer, then, is a witness for God. In time and in eternity, he is a lamp kindling into brighter and yet brighter flame, in the sanctuary of his Lord. Early in his ministry, our Master taught this to his disciples:

“Ye are the light of the world;” “Shine,” and “Glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Por this very purpose of bearing witness to the truth every believer was first called. And as Jesus, the Messiah, the elect of God, is the Chief Witness and pre-eminent glorifier of God, so all the members of this Head and followers of this leader, render a testimony according to their respective positions. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen.” But this testimony to God and his truth must not be left in its generality, but traced out a little further into some of its branching exemplifications; in order that we may see how complete, irrefragable and glorious is the witness borne to revelation and the gospel. True believers, then, are witnesses for God, by their believing, their profession, their example, and their suffering.

1. By their BELIEVING. To believe God’s words is the very first act of adherence. Here the vital connexion is formed with God incarnate. At this point the rebel wheels into the ranks of service. The erring orb turns its lately darkened side towards the Sun of righteousness. What though the act be inward and invisible? God reads his own inscription on the soul: and who shall say that it is not read by higher created intelligences? Even among men, this light is not placed within the crystal globe of a soul to remain unseen. Acceptance of truth, especially of Jesus, the primeval truth, is inferior to no act of homage which the creature ever puts forth during all the career of grace. The chief attestation given by any man is himself to believe. He “setteth to his seal,” that God is true; he witnesses. It is his endorsement, or subscription. He avouches God to be his God, and passes over to his side. This is introduced allusively a few verses later: xhv. 5: “One shall say, I am the Lord’s, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.” He who has faith in the Gospel thereby becomes a witness for Cln-ist. It is by the Spirit in the soul that believers are enabled to say: “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”

2. Believers are witnesses for God, by means of THEIR profession. This is literal, positive, and open witness-bearing. In Scripture it is often called confession, and those who brave perils in making this avowal are named confessors. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” In early times it was often, as indeed it sometimes is with us, a joint attestation, a “good confession,” before many witnesses. This comes home tenderly to all such as have lately taken God to be their God, and sat down among his people. They then and there stood forth as witnesses. To this Paul alludes, saying, “Let us hold fast the profession [joint attestation] of our faith without wavering.” AU professing Christians since the world began have been so many witnesses for the Christian system. They voluntarily come out from the world and take their position on the Lord’s side. They avouch the Lord to be their God, and Jesus Christ to be their leader and captain of salvation. Of this testimony they are not ashamed. If religion is unpopular, and strict Christians in a minority; if social persecution, in the way of ridicule and calumny, arises; if false opinions, called liberal, but savouring of perverse progress, erroneous and heretical, have currency and sit in the heights of fashion; if consequently it costs something to be a disciple, and the professor must often be singular, conspicuous, and sohtary; none of these things move him. As a witness would go into court joyfully and with open face to attest the character of a father or a friend, though all the world were on the other side, so the Christian is ready to stand up for his Redeemer. There is even a glorying, in the ingenuous soul, when adherence to a friend and vindication of a righteous cause involve some peril or obloquy. The majority of you, my brethren, are called to profess the name of Jesus, in a much more quiet and secure way. You rather gain than lose by appearing as Christians. Very different is your condition from that of early believers, who often signed their own death-warrant when they owned Christ before men. But you do as really witness for God, when you come into the fellowship of saints, and show the Lord’s death till he come.

3. Disciples are witnesses for God by their example. Actions speak loudly for any cause. “By this,” said our Saviour, “shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye keep my commandments.” It is by letting our light shine that we glorify our Pather which is in heaven. No words, however well chosen, repeated or earnest, no professions, however public, can avail so much for the honour of Christianity, as a pure and consistent life. In the early progress of the Gospel, this was the attestation which first struck, then attracted, and eventually convinced the Gentile observer. The truth, the peacefulness, the meekness, the fraternal affection, the charity of the new sect, won its way to the moral approbation even of enemies. This is a species of testimony which, from its nature, is continually on the increase. The more wide our field of observation and the closer our scrutiny, the more will instances of moral excellence, as finiits of faith in Christ, brighten on our vision, as new tracts of stars come into view in galaxies and nebulae, under the penetrative power of the telescope. All believers are thus God’s witnesses, by a holy life; and this to the confounding of infidelity, which can show no such seals. Our very familiarity with this class of facts deadens our susceptibility to their just force. We almost weary of seeing men made better by Christianity. But let us see how the account will read, if we reverse the statement, and imagine such things recorded of infidehty. Let me feign the history of such inverted revival, thus: A man well known as a Har, swindler, and profane swearer, has lately been convinced of the falsity of the Christian religion, and has consequently abandoned all his evil courses. A riotous, drunken ruffian, the scourge of his family and terror of his neighbourhood, has lately become quiet, pure, and temperate, and has closed his den of madness, all as the fruit of Deism, to which he has been converted. Two miserable debauchees ascribe their return to a life of virtue to having embraced the doctrine of universal salvation, and express great comfort in the belief that Judas Iscariot passed immediately into glory. An entire community has just sustained a transformation from htigious conflict and angry feud to concord and humanity, from yielding to the belief that there is no God. — You are startled, my brethren, and justly. Infidelity bears no such fruit and summons no such witnesses; while the religion of the Bible exhibits them with uniformity, splendour, and incalculable extent.

4. True Christians are witnesses for God by their SUFFERINGS. All Christian suffering is a kind of witness-bearing. It is the greatest consolation of saints imder heavy trials, in long debilitating illnesses, and those retirements and straits which forbid active service, that they are all the while passively serving. Under the Cross they bear witness of God; attesting his justice, his faithfulness, his power, his wisdom, his covenant-gentleness; they bear witness of Jesus, that he hears the sigh of the humble, distils the dew of his grace, sustains the fainting head with his arm, tranquillizes and elevates by his Spirit, and shows himself altogether lovely. Suffering is witness-bearing, O believer, when under pangs, or in painless intervals, when the clammy moisture and heaving breast and languid eye betray the wrestUng just past, you are permitted and prompted to honour your God and Saviour. Not only men, but angels, nay God himself, regard such endurance, even in a single case; what shall we say of the gathering myriads, who for ages have been coming out of great tribulation, and ascending to the white robes and triumphal palaces of Zion? “Ye are my witnesses,’’ will the King say to such, but especially to those who shall have sealed the confession of the truth with their own blood. Let not the overstrained eulogy and superstitious veneration of these by a corrupt Church lead us to deny the value of their testimony. A witness is called in Greek a martyr. We have borrowed the word, and made it sacred in our own tongue; for though it appears only twice in our version, in application to Stephen and Antipas, the very same word occurs repeatedly and is in the Greek translation of our text. “The noble army of martyrs” praise God, and should not be forgotten of men. Among external evidences, these avowals of men, who, at the risk of every thing earthly, and in contempt of every favour and reward, o^led Christ at the stake, or in the face of ravenous beasts, abide conspicuous. In regard to the miracles of Christ and his apostles, as well as to the predictions uttered by these and afterwards fulfilled, the attestations of such original witnesses, at the instant of martyrdom, are beyond all price. We are forced to believe them. Every law of evidence and every principle of human nature must be violated, before we can doubt the numerous concurrent uncontradicted testimonies of those who could not have been mistaken, and who would not in such perils have deceived. All antiquity shows that the witness-bearing of both classes had a mighty effect in commanding the credence of Jews and Gentiles, on the spot and at the time. Nor was the validity of the miracles which were thus attested left to be settled by the intrinsic evidence of the truth which such miracles confirmed. This opinion, which has trickled in upon our theology from the corrupt springs of German latitudinarianism, and which would prove miracle by doctrine rather than doctrine by miracle, belongs to a system which, speciously gaining over our younger scholars, is carrying them over by squadrons to the camp of rationalism. The late eminently philosophical statesman, Mr. Gallatin, once said to me, alluding to the lax opinions of certain erroneous teachers: “They say, we believe in spite of the miracles; but I say I believe because of the miracles.” And when we accredit the early martyrs and confessors, we build on the miracles and other supernatural sanctions which constitute the ground course of the evidential wall. To which we add, in another sense, all the suffering and dying witnesses of later ages.

Behold here, my brethren, in the faintest outhne, something of the testimony which God receives from his people. To tJiem you must go, if you would learn

BELIEVERS ARE WIT^^:SSES. 395

the grounds and import of Christianity. Only they can say, “We speak that which we know, and testify that we have seen.” They can tell of a Saviour who has proved himself sufficient in the day of trial, who has lifted them out of the swoon of despair, and breathed rapture into them with the kiss of peace. Their language vnR naturally be. Come and hear what the Lord hath done for our souls. They are not reluctant mtnesses, but long for opportunities to report the greatness of the Divine love. Their number is incalculable. In all human tongues these attestations will be given. Out of all kindreds and peoples they will flock in concourse to the green and fragrant banks of the River of Life, to renew, amplify, and perpetuate that testimony which they began below. Go to them, ye doubters, and not to the ignorant and deluded sons of philosophy, falsely so called; go to them, and accept their record. They knoio that these things are so. They have believed; and believing have had the spirit of adoption. The things of religion are reaUties, ascertained to them by an infallible consciousness. It is the certainty of their assurance which gives earnestness to their unanimous declaration.

And e, my fellow- witnesses for God, consider whom you attest, and what the office you discharge. The voice which shakes heaven and earth, says, “Ye are my witnesses 1” Let the solemn vocation penetrate, and the heavenly sanction overshadow your minds; let other duties, callings, and privileges be merged in this. Looking back on all the way in wliicli the Lord has led you, must not you speak good of his name? Love should constrain you to testify that nothing has failed of all that was promised. But you live in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Let the light be brilliant and unmistakable. Hold it high, so that none need ever ask twice whether you ate on the Lord’s side or not. However ardent may be the professions of some, at a season of general awakening, and how firm soever their attachment to Christ’s church and ministers, observation shows that time works marvellous changes in stony-ground hearers. Such were the Galatians; warm converts, strenuous adherents, eager witnesses for a while. But listen how Paul addresses them: “Where is, then, the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out yoiu* own eyes and have given them to me.” Life, entire life, beloved servants of my Lord, is a period of witnessing. By act, by omission, by speech, by silence, whether you will or not, you are forever testifying. Hour by hour you are testifying, sometimes much more loudly than by words, either for or against your Master. You are doing that which leads others to conclude, either that Christ affords a satisfying portion, or that his service is annoying and wearisome. Here, surrounded by the partners of a common hope, and supported by a pubHc opinion which honours the Gospel, you are prompt to appear on the side of truth.

It costs no sacrifice of profit, ease, or good name. But change the scene; go among the wicked, or even the gay. Enter the smnmer circle, at pubHc resorts, where strict conformity to God’s law is imknown; and allow me to ask, is your mind made up to be a witness for your Redeemer there also? Are you likely to be firm for Christ, when all the tide of opinion, business, pleasure, runs the other way; when to be a consistent disciple is to be pointed at and shunned; and when your testimony may be as unwelcome as it is soHtary? For such Christianity, you need a courage which will never come to you except upon your knees. Though left as solitary as was your Lord, and like him beset with false witnesses, if you only have his Spirit, if his life flows into you, if, believing on and clinging to him, you have inward pulses which keep time with his heart; you will stand in the evil day, you will win souls, you will recommend the Gospel, you will live teaching and die witnessing. Amen.