Confirming the Witness of Christ

“Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.” — 1 Corinthians, L 6.

It is not always the most gifted cliurcli which is in the most healthy state. A church may have many rich, influential, or learned members; many that have the gift of utterance, and understand all sciences; yet that church may be in an unhealthy condition. Such was the case with the church at Corinth. Paul, in the opening of his epistle, tells them that he thanks God always on their behalf for the grace of God given unto them by Christ Jesus, that in every thing they were enriched in all utterance, and in all knowledge, so that they were behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Corinthians were what we should call now-a-days, judging them by the usual standard, a first-class church. They had many who understood much of the learning of the Greeks; they were men of classic taste, and men of good understanding, men of profound knowledge, and yet in spiritual health that church was one of the worst in all Greece, and perhaps in the world. You would not find another church so low sunk among the whole of them as this one, although it was the most gifted. Now what should this teach us in the very outset? Should it not show us that gifts are nothing, unless they are laid on the altar of God? That it is nothing to have the gift of oratory, that it is nothing to have the power of eloquence, that it is nothing to have learning, that it is nothing to have influence, unless they all be dedicated to God, and consecrated to his service? I said it is “nothing ,*” I mean it is nothing good. Alas! it is worse than nothing good; it is something evil, it is something dreadful, it is something terrible for a man to have these gifts, and yet to misuse them, for they shall only furnish fuel for a fiercer flame than he would have endured had he not such abilities. He who buries his ten talents may well expect to be given over to the tormentor. This is the lesson taught us. Let us never judge men by their talents — let us never estimate our fellows by externals — but by the use which they make of their powers; by the end to which they devote their talents, by the kind of usury which they bring on those pounds which their Master has intrusted to them. St. Paul, in the commencement of his epistle, very gently hints at the right use of gifts and talents, and he tells us that they are sent to us, that we may “confirm the testimony of Christ Jesus.” If we do not use them for this purj)ose, we misuse them; if we do not turn them to this account, we abuse them. Yf e ought to use our endowments as the Corinthians did not use them; but as they ought to have done, in confirming the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Corinthians had more powers than any of us. Many of them could work miracles; they could heal the sick; they could restore the lepers; they could work wonders by the supernatural gifts of the Holy Ghost. Some of them could talk several languages, and wherever they went, they were all able to speak the language of the people among whom they abode; because they were not able to spend much time in learning languages, and there needed something to sustain the infant church. It was then but a sapling, it required a staff in the ground by its side, that it might lean upon it, might grow, and be strong. It was a little plant that needed to be sustained; and, therefore, God worked miracles; but now it is the stalwart oak, and has its roots bent round the stanchest rocks in creation; now it needs not any support by miracle, and therefore God has left us without extraordmary gifts. But whatever gifts we have, we are to use them for the purpose mentioned in the text, that is, for the confirmation of the testimony of Christ Jesus.

There are two pomts which we shall speak of as the Holy Spirit may enable us. First of all, the testimony of Christ Jesus y and, secondly, what is meant by our confirming.

I. First, then, the testimony of Christ Jesus. We are told in the text, that there was a testimony of Christ which was “confirmed in you.” Our inquiry is, what is meant by the testimony of Christ.

That this world is fallen, is the first truth in all theology. “We have gone astray like lost sheep,” and had there not been mercy in the mind of God, he might justly have left thia world to perish without ever calling it to repentance; but he, in his wondrous long-suffering and his mighty patience, was not pleased so to do. Being full of tender mercies and lovingkindness, he determined on sending the Mediator into the world, whereby he might restore it again to its pristine glory, and might save for himself a people whom “no man could number,” who are to be called the elect of God, loved with his everlasting love. In order that he might rescue the world, and save those elect ones, the Lord of Hosts has constantly ordained and sent forth a perpetual priesthood of testifiers. What was Abel with his Iamb but the first martyred witness of the truth? Did not Enoch wear his mantle wdien he walked with God, or prophesied the second advent? Was not IN’oah a preacher of righteousness among a gainsaying generation. The glorious succession never fails. Abraham comes from Ur of the Chaldees, and from the hour of his call till the day wdien he slept in Machpelah, he was a faithful witness. Then we might mention Lot in Sodom, Melchisedec in Salem, Isaac and Jacob in their tents, and Joseph in Egypt. Head the Scripture history, and can you fail to observe a golden chain of united links, hanging over a sea of darkness, but yet uniting Abel with the last of the patriarchs.

We are now arrived at a new era in the history of the church, but it is not destitute of light. See there the son of Amram, the honored Moses. That man was a very sun of brightness, for he had been where darkness vailed the unutterable light of the skirts of Jehovah. He climbed the steep sides of Sinai; he went up where the lightnings blazed, and the thunders lifted up their awful voice; he stood upon the mountain’s burning summit; and there, in that secret chamber of the Most High, he learned in forty days, the witness of forty years, and was the constant enunciator of justice and righteousness. But he died, as the best men must. Sleep on, O Moses, in thy secret grave! fear not for truth, for Joshua now declares: “As forme and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The times of the judges and kings were sometimes densely darkened; but amid their civil wars, their idolatry, their persecutions, and their visitations, the chosen people still had a remnant, according to the election of grace. There were ever some who walked through the earth, like the ancient Druids in the woods, wrapped in white garments of holiness, and crowned with the glories of the Most High. The river of truth might run in a shallow stream, but it was never utterly dry. ‘Nex.t come to the times of the prophets; and there, after traversing a dreary period, when the world was only illumined here and there by such lamps as Kathan, Abijah, Gad, or Elijah, you find that you have come to the light of meridian day, or rather to a cloudless sky, crowded with stars. There is the eloquent Isfah, the lamenting Jeremy, the soaring Ezekiel, the well-beloved Daniel, and, lo! behind these four high priests of prophecy, there follow twelve clothed in the same habiliments, performing the same service. I might style Isaiah the pole-star of prophecy; Jeremiah resembles the rainy Hyades of Horace; Ezekiel was the burning Sirias; and as for Daniel, he resembles a flaming comet, flashing on our vision but for a moment, and then lost in obscurity. I am not at a loss to find a constellation for the minor prophets: they are a sweet group, of intense brilliancy, even though but small: they are the Pleiades of the Bible. Perhaps at no former season were the stars of God marshaled in greater numbers; but yet, amid all preceding and succeeding gloom, the sky of time was never in total darkness; there was always a watcher, and a shining one, there. God has never abandoned the world, he has never quenched its lamp of testimony; he has never said “Go, thou vile thing,” and spurned it from his foot. He might deluge it once with water; he might rain fire and brimstone upon Sodom; he might drown a nation in the sea; he might destroy a generation in the wilderness; he might devour kingdoms, and root them up; but never, never would he extinguish the perpetual flame of the testimony of truth.

I was tliinkiog just now of a picture which I saw a fe^• days ago; a beautiful painting of a brook, with stepping stones in the water, upon which the traveler crossed; and the idea has just flashed upon my mind — surely, the stream of man’s wickedness, and the stream of time, may be crossed by those stepping-stones of testimony. There you have Noah, and he is a stepping-stone, to step to Abraham; and from him to Moses, and from Moses to Elijah; and so on, from Elijah to Daniel, from Daniel to Isaiah, and from Isaiah down to the brave Maccabees. And what is the last steppmg-stone? It is Jesus Christ, the faithful and true witness; the Lord of the kings of the earth. Jesus was, in one sense, the last testifier of truth. We are left to confirm it to others; and we shall just for a few moments enlarge on what the testimony of Jesus Christ was. First of all, in order to justify me in calling Jesus Christ a testifier, I want to refer to one or two passages of Scripture, where you will see that he came into this world to be a testifier and witness of the truth. Turn to the 3d chapter of John, and the 31st verse. John says: “He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth, is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true.” There we find John, who was the harbinger of our Saviour, speaking of Christ as giving testimony; speaking of him as one who came into the world for the special purpose of testifying to the truth. Turn further on, in the same book, and you will find, in the 8th chapter and 18th verse, our Saviour says this of himself: “I am one that bear witness of myself; and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.” I refer you again to the 18th chapter of John and the 33d verse, where Pilate saith to Jesus Christ: “Art thou a king?” and he said: “For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” There again you find our Saviour speaking of himself as a witness. Then I might refer you to some portions of Scripture in Isaiah, where he speaks of himself as a witness; but I will only keep to the works of our friend John; and we will now turn to the book of Revelation. Turn to the 1st chapter and the 5th verse, and you find him saying: “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness.” The 3d chapter of the same book, the 14th verse: “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness.” Now, then, I think I am not dishonoring my Master by calHng him a “witness.” I have placed him side by side Vv’ith a glorious cloud of witnesses, and I have said he is the last wdtness; and I think I have not dishonored his blessed name, when I find he calls himself a “witness.” Let ns enlarge upon this head for a moment or two. Christ is the very king of witnesses; he is the greatest of all witnesses, and suy)erior to every other. He does not differ from any other in the things he testifies, for they all testify to the same truth; but there is something in which this glorious witness is superior to every other.

First, let me remark, that Christ witnesses directly for himself and that is one thing in wdiich he is superior to all the rest of the prophets — and the other holy men who testified to the truth. What did Isaiah say? and what did Elijah say? or Jeremiah? or Daniel? They only said second-hand things, they spake what God had revealed to them. But when Christ spake, he always spake directly from himself All the rest only spake that wdiich they had received from God. They had to tarry till the wdnged cherub brought the live coal; they had to gird on the ephod and the curious girdle with its Urim and Thummim; they must stand listening till the voice saith — “Son of man, I have a message for thee.” They were but instruments blown by the breath of God, and giving sounds only at his pleasure; but Christ was a fountain of living water, he opened his mouth and the truth gushed forth, and it all came directly from himself. In this, as a faithful Tvitness, he was suj)erior to every other. He could say — “What I have seen, and heard, that do I testily;” I have been mside the vail; I have entered into the sanctum sanctorum; I have dived into the depths, I have soared into the heights; there is not a place where I have not been, there is not a truth which I can not call mine own. I am no voice of another. I am He. In this respect he surpassed every other.

CONFIRMING THE WITNESS OF CHRIST. ‘ZZd

Secondly, Christ was superior to every other, from the fact, that his testimony was umform. It was always the same testimony. We can not say that of any other. Look at E“oah, he was a very good testifier to the truth, except once, when he was mtoxicated; he was a sorry testifier to the truth then. David was a testifier to the truth, but he sinned against God, and put Uriah to death. What shall we say of Elijah, that man in shaggy garments? He was a testifier to the truth, but he was not so when he stood in the cave — “And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said. What doest thou here, Elijah:” Abraham was another witness, but he was not so wdien he said his wife was his sister, and denied her. The same might be said of Isaac; and if you go through the whole list of holy men, you will find some fault in them; and we shall be obliged to say, they were very good testifiers, certainly, but their testimony is not uniform. There is a plague-spot which sin has left upon them all; there was something to show that man is nothing but an earthen vessel after all. But Christ’s testimony was uniform. There never was a time when he contradicted himself; there never was an instance in which it could be said, “what you have said, you now contradict.” See him everywhere, whether on the cold mountain-top at midnight, in prayer, or in the midst of the city; observe him when he walked through the cornfields on the Sabbath day, or wdien, on the ocean, he bid the waves “Be still,” wherever he was, his testimony was uniform. This can not be said of any other. The best men have their faults. They say the sun has spots, and so I suppose the most glorious of m.en, whoever they are, who will shine most brightly in the firmament forever and ever, will have- their spots wdiile on earth. Christ’s testimony was like his own coat, woven from the top throughout; there was not any seam in it at all; other men’s coats have seams in them, but his testimony was uniform.

Yet, further, Christ’s testimony was perfect in testifying to all truth. Other men only gave testimony to parts of truth, but Christ manifested it all. Other men had the threads of truth, but Christ took the threads and spun them into a tapestry, made them into a glorious robe, put it on, and came forth

224 CONFIRMII^G THE WITNESS OF CHRIST.

clothed with every truth of God. There was more of God re* vealed by Christ than hi the works of creation, or in all the prophets. Christ was a testifier to all God’s attributes, and he left none of them unmentioned. Do you ask me whether Christ bore testimony to the justice of God: I tell you, yes. See him hanging there, languishing on Calvary, his bones all dislocated. Did he bear testimony to God’s mercy? Yes. See those poor creatures who were limping there just now — the lame man leaping like a hart, the poor man beholding the the sun and rejoicing. Did he witness to the yower of God? I say, yes. You see him standing in the prow of the ship, and saying to the winds — “Be still!” and holding them in the hollow of his hand. Has he not borne testimony to every thing in God? His testimony wlas perfect; nothing ws left out; every thing was there. We could not say that of any other man. I believe we can not say that of any modern preacher. Some people say, I can hear Mr. So-and-so, because he preaches so much of doctrine, another likes all experience, and some want all practice. Very well, you do not expect that God has made one man to say every thing. Certainly not. One class of men defend one class of truths, and another, another. I bless God that there are so many denominations. If there were not men who differed a little in their creeds, we should never get so much gospel as we do. One man loves high doctrine, and he thinks he is bound to defend it every Sabbath. So much the better. Some do not sieak of it at all, so that he helps to make up other people’s deficiences. Some men are fond of fiery exhortations; they give them every Sabbath, and they can not preach a sermon without them. But, then, others do not give them at all, so that the lack of one is supplied by the other. God has sent different men to defend different kinds of truths. But Christ defended and preached all. He took them, bound them in one bundle, and said,” Here is myrrh, and spice, and aloes altogether, here is the whole truth’* — Christ’s testimony was yerfect.

Mark, once more, before I come to the confirmation of this testimony, Christ’s testimony v final. His was the last testimony, the last revelation that ever will be given to man. After Christ, nothing. Christ comes last: he is the stepping-stone across the brook of time. All who come after him are only confirmers of the testimony of Christ. Our Aiigustins, our Ambroses, our Chrysostoms, or any other of the mighty preachers of olclen times, they never pretended to say any thing fresh. They only revived the gospel — that same old-fashioned gospel which Christ used to preach. And Luther, and Calvin, and Zuiugle, and Knox, they only came to confirm the truth. Christ said ‘■^ finis’^’’ to the canon of revelation, and it was closed forever. No one can add a single word thereto, and no one can take a word therefrom. We Dissenters are sometimes charged with inventing a new gospel. We deny it. We say that our Owen, Howe, Henry, Charnock, Bunyan, Baxter, or Janeway, and all that galaxy of stars did not pretend to any thing new; they only preached the same thing over again, they only revived the things that Christ said, they only professed to be coniirmers of the witness, and not witnesses. And so it has been with the gi-eat men we have lost during the last century. Whitefield and his brother evangelists, and men who stood in the same position as Gill, or Booth, or Kippon, or Carey, or Ryland, or some of those who have just been taken away — they did not pretend to any thing new. They only said. Brethren, we come to tell you the same old story; we have got just as much as God bestows; we are not testifiers of new things; we are only coniirmers of the witness, Christ Jesus.

II. And now we come to the second part of our subject, and that is, the testimony of Christ is to be confirmed in you. There are two points here — the testimony of Christ needs to be confirmed in ourselves, and it needs to be confirmed in others.

1. First, then, to every Christian the testimony of Christ needs to be confirmed in his own heart. O, beloved, that is the best confirmation of gospel truth which every Christian carries about within him. I love “Butler’s Analogy,” it is a very powerful book. I love “Paley’s Evidences,” but I never need them myself, for my own use. I do not want any proof that the Bible is true. Why? Because it is confirmed in me. There is a witness which dwells in me which makes me bid defiance to all infidelity, so that I can say;” Should all the forms that men devise, Assault my faith with treacherous art, I’d call them vanity and lies,

And bind the gospel to my heart.”

I do n:^ care to read books oyposing the truths of the Bible; I nevei want to wade through mire for the sake of washing myself afterward. When I am asked to read a heretical book I think of good John Newton. Dr. Taylor, of Norwich, said to him: “Have you read my Key to the Romans?” “I have turned it over,” said the doctor. “And is this the treatment a book must meet with which has cost me so many years’ hard study; you ought to have read it carefully, and weighed deliberately what comes forward on so serious a subject.” “Hold,” said ISTewton, “you have cut me out full employment for a life as long as Methuselah’s. My life is too short to be spent in reading contradictions of my religion. If the first page tells me the man is undermining truths, it is enough for me. If I had the iirst mouthful of a joint tainted, I do not want to eat it through to be convinced; I ought to send it away.” Having the truth confirmed in us, we can laugh all arguments to fcorn; we are plated in a sheet of mail when Ave have a witness within us to God’s truth. AH the men in this world can not make us alter one single iota of what God has written within us. xlh, brethren and sisters, we want to have the truth confirmed within is. Let me tell you a few things that will do this. First, the very fact of our conversion tends to confirm us in the truth. O, says the Christian, do not tell me there is no power in i-eligion, for I have felt it. I was thoughtless like others; I laughed religion to scorn, and those who attended to it; my language was. Let us eat, drink, and enjoy the sunshine of life, but now through Christ Jesus I find the Bible a honeycomb, which hardly needs to be pressed to let the drops of honey run out; it is so sweet and precious to my taste that I wish I could sit down and feast on my Bible forever. What has made this alteration? That is how the Christian reasons. He says, there must be a power in grace, otherwise I never should be so changed as I am; there must be truth in the Christian religion, otherwise this change never would have come over me. Some men have ridiculed religion and its followers, and yet divine grace has been so mighty, that those very men have become converted and felt the new birth. Such men can not be argued out of the truth of religion. You may stand and talk to them from dewy morn to setting eve, but you can never get them to believe that there is not truth in God’s word. They have the truth coniirmed in them.

Then, again, another thing confirms the Christian in the truth, and that is, when God answers his prayers. I think that this is one of the strongest confirmations of truth when we find God hears us. Now I speak to you, on this point, of things which I have tasted and handled. The wicked man will not believe this; he ^dll say. Ah, go and tell those who know no better. I say, I have proved the power of prayer a hundred times, because I have gone to God, and asked him for mercies, and have had them. Ah, say some, it is only just in the common course of providence. “Common course of provideiice.’’” It is a blessed course of providence; if yoir had been in my position you would not have said that; I have seen it just as if God had rent the heavens, and put his hand out and said: “There, my child, is the mercy.” It has come so plainly out of the way, that I could not call it a common course of providence. Sometimes I have been depressed and downcast, and even out of heart at coming to stand before - this multitude, and I have said, what shall I do? I could % anywhere rather than come here any more. I have asked God to bless me, and send me words to say, and then I have felt filled to the brim, so that I could come before this congregation or any other. Is that a common course of providence? It is a special providence — a special answer to prayer. And there be some here who can turn to the pages of their diary, and see there God’s hand plainly interposing; we can say to the infidel. Begone! The truth is confirmed in us, and so confirmed that nothing can drive us out of it.

You have had the truth confirmed in you, my dear friends, when you have found great support iJi times of affliction and trihulation. Some of you have passed through trouble, for we can never expect a congregation which is free from it. Some of you have been tried and have been brought very low; and can not you say with David: “I was brought low and the Lord helped me?” Can you not think how well you bore that last trouble? When you lost that child, you thought that you could not bear it so well as you did; but you said: “The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Many of you have loved ones under the sod; your mother, father, husband, or wife. You thought your heart would break when you lost your parents; but is not the promise true — when thy father and thy mother forsake thee, then the Lord will take thee up? He told thee, woman, that he would be a father to thy children, and hast thou not found it so? Canst thou not say, ISTot one good thing has failed of all the Lord has promised? That is the best confirmation of the truth of God. Sometimes persons come to me in the vestry, and they want me to confirm the truth outside of them. I can not do that; I want them to have the truth confirmed in them. They say. How do you know the Bible is true? O, I say, I never have to ask such a question as that now, because it is confirmed in me. The Bishop has confirmed me — I mean the “Bishop of souls;” for I never was confirmed by any other, and so confirmed me in the truth, that no one can confii-m me out of it. I say. Try religion yourself, and you will see its power. You stop outside the house, and you want me to prove what is inside the house; go in yourself — taste and see that the Lord is good; O, it is a blessed thing to trust in him. This is the best way of confirming the truth.

2. The second thought was, that it was our business not only to have the truth confirmed in our own souls, but so to live that we might be the means of confirming the truth in others. -Do you know what Bible the wicked and the worldly man reads? He does not read this Bible at all. Pie reads the Christian. “There,” says he, “that man goes to church, and he is a member; I will see how he lives, I will read him up and down;” and he watches him and reads his conduct. “If he is bad,” he says, “religion is a farce;” but if he is a man who lives up to it, he says, “There is something in religion after all.” Wicked men do not read the Bible; they read Christians; they read professors and members. They watch them, to Doe how they live, with a careful eye. Christians have got Argus with a hundi’cd eyes staring on them. The wicked world looks at every fault with a magnifying glass, and they make the smallest molehill into the greatest mountain; and if there is a mote in our eye, they will make it into a beam, and they will say the man is a hypocrite at once. It is the duty of every child of God so to live, that he may coniirm the witness of Christ. We should labor to do it in all the common things of daily life: “Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Some men think that religion lies in great things. It does not, it lies in little things. That man who died last night, and went to heaven; if you ask what his life was the day he died — why he ate, he drank, there was nothing particular about the day. Take any one day of our lives; we eat, drink, rise in the morning, go to bed at night, nothing very particular about the day. Our life is made up of little things, and if we are not careful of little things, we shall not be careful of great ones. If we do not take care of little things, the great ones must go wrong. O, may you have grace so to live that the world may find no fault in you; and if in little things they see an exactnesH and almost precision (and too much precision will be better than the looseness of the morals of some professors), then they will say. There is something in religion; that man’s life has confirmed it in my mind, because he lives up to it.

Then, again, if you can bear the taunts of wicked men, without returning them, that will be a way of confirming religion. O, when I have entered into a controversy with some men, and have been betrayed into heat of temper, I could have bitten my fingers off* that I should have done so. If you can keep your temper when men laugh at you, and if, when they revile you, you do not return it, you will coniirm the truth. They will say. There is something in that man, otherwise he could not so keep his temper. You have read of James Haldane. Once, when unconverted, he threw a ship’s tumbler at the head of a person who insulted him; but when regenerated on another occasion of insult, he simply said, ‘* I would resent it, but I have learned to forgive injuries and overlook insults.” Men were obliged to say of him,

230 CONB^IRMING THE WITNESS OF CHRIST.

“There is something in religion which can bring such a hon as that clown, and make him such a lamb.” Thus you will confirm the witness of Christ, if you bear up against persecution. If you can bear the laugh and jeer of wicked men patiently, you will confirm the truth.

Now, my friends, to close; the last confirmation you and I will ever be able to give to the witness of Christ is coming very soon. There is an hour when we shall no longer be able to confirm the truth; for we must die, and that is the best confirmation of a man’s principles — when he dies well. One of the noblest confirmations of the Christian religion, is the fact that a man dies a peaceable, a happy, and a triumphant death. O, if when you come to die, you are able to say, “O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, wdiere is thy victory?” and if you can grasp the tyrant Death in your hand and hurl him to the ground, and triumph in him who said, “O! Death, I will be thy plagues; O! Grave, I will be thy destruction!” If you can die without fear, or repining, or remorse, knowing that you are forgiven — if you can die with the song of victory on your lips, and with the smile of joy upon your countenance, then you will confirm the witness of Christ.

Once more, let me, in conclusion, urge you as followers of Christ Jesus, as those wdiom he has loved with an everlasting love; as heirs of immortality, as those who have been rescued from the pit of destruction, as professors of religion, as members of a Christian church, let me beseech you to make it your first and last object to confirm the witness of Christ. Whereever you are, whatever you are doing, say wdthin yourself, I must so live and die that I may confirm the witness of Christ. I must so walk among my friends and neighbors, that they will see there is a truth and a power in religion. And let me wlarn you not to undertake this in your own strength; you will want fresh power from on high from the Holy Ghost. Get a fresh supply of grace at the throne. You will want fresh power from the throne of heavenly grace. It is a good plan that some persons adopt; they walk home, and when they get there, they have a few minutes in prayer with their God. It is a blessed way of clenching the nail, and making a sermon tell. Ah, if you can go home and say — I solemnly vow, yet

I VOW not in my own strength; but I solemnly vow l)y thy grace, that from this moment henceforward, it shall be my aim to live more as a contirmer of the truth! I did not know my high standing before, but I know now, that I am a confirmer of the truth. Lord, help me so to live that there may never be any flaw in my conduct, never any vile word proceed out of my lips — make me so to live that I may confirm the truth; Lord, help me to confirm the witness of Christ! Go and register that vow, and that resolution, and seek God’s grace that you may not let it lie there a vow unearned out; but may you be able to live to the glory of G(xl, and to the honor of his blessed name!