WITNESSING FOR CHRIST.

"Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him. Go home unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."— MARK V. 19.

This answer was in reply to an affecting appeal on the part of the man, whose cure furnishes one of the most extraordinary scenes in the whole history of the Gospel. It was that poor wretch who lived in the tombs, and desolate places, cutting himself, crying day and night, stronger than armed men, stronger than chains and cords, and who, having gone through this terrific experience, was healed by Christ. And it is said of them, after the healing, "When he (Christ) was come unto the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him."

There is something touching in that clinging desire. Doubtless every tenderest feeling of gratitude was awakened in the heart of this man, and he clung to Christ with a true love. We may also believe— and it is not inconsistent with love-that fear mingled with it. That he was healed by this man he knew; but if he should go away, how did he know but his old enemy might take possession of him again? He was safe under the eye of Christ, and he felt safe nowhere else. It was not, therefore, unreasonable for him to beg that he might dwell with him. But, after all, home was for him a place of safety.

It is to be remarked that our Saviour, in selecting his disciples, did not, in any single instance (I do not recall one) select a man who had received great personal favor at his hand.

He selected none out of whom he had cast diseases or demons. He selected those who, though they were humble, came to him without special obligation. Whether he thought that such an one was not a fit person to be in the disciple-band; whether he thought that no one who had had an infirmity should be ranked in any sense as a teacher, we are not informed. At any rate, when the man begged to go with him, he answered, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."

To do this was itself a kind of assurance, a preservative, to him. It

SUNDAY MORNING, March 20, 1870. LESSON: LUKE XVII, 1–19. HYMNS (Plymouth Collec tion): Nos. 170, 603, 666.

was just the place that a restored man ought to have gone to, not simply from considerations of his own personal safety and well-being, but from considerations of gratitude. Those who had borne with him, who had sacrificed much for him, who had suffered on his account, had a right to the joy of his recovery; and it is a rare touch of human feeling in the Saviour, that he sends this man back home, first, to comfort them. "Go let them know what the Lord hath done for you."

Our Master was especially sensitive to the recognition of gratitude. When he performed a work of mercy, he desired that men should confess it make it known. That they would recognize it to his face was not to be doubted; but he wanted them to make it known to others. There are special occasions of exception, where the jealousy of the government was so extreme that the least addition to the popular excitement might carry it over the bounds, and give occasion to the Roman army to fall upon the Jews, and butcher them.

In certain cases, out of motives of humanity, the Saviour sometimes charged men not to tell any one of the miracles that he had performed in their behalf. Under such circumstances the reason was one of humanity, and was local and special. But generally, when there was no such harm to be apprehended, the Saviour, on the other hand, commanded men to make known their experience, and the part which God had had in it.

It is from this narrative, and this general statement, that I propose, this morning, to speak on the duty of witnessing to Christ's work in us. It is just as incumbent now, as it was in his own day. It is just as incumbent in respect to spiritual things as it was with regard to physical mercies.

In general, every man who believes himself to be a Christian, is bound to make such public acknowledgment that men shall know the source of his godly life. There is a vague popular impression that a man should join a church, and there are good cautionary reasons why he should; but that, it seems to me, is not the most felicitous way of putting it. Every man who is conscious that his character has been brought under the power of the Spirit of God, is bound to let men know that the life which is flowing out from him now is not his own natural life, but one which proceeds from the Spirit of God. He is bound to make a public witness and testimony that the work of morality, of virtue, of spiritual fervor, of higher manhood, to which he has been called, and in which he is beginning to live, is a divine work, and not one that springs from a lower form of natural causes, or from natural causes only.

This would seem too obvious for remark, did not facts show that multitudes of men endeavor to live Christianly, but are very cautious

about saying that they are Christians-and from shame-faced reasons, sometimes; from reasons of fear, sometimes; from reasons of pride, sometimes. Men who are endeavoring to live Christianly say, often, "Let my example speak, and not my lips." Why should not a man's lips and example both speak? Why should not a man interpret his example? Why should a man leave it to be inferred, in this world, that he is living simply by the power of his own will? Why should he leave it for men to point to him, and say, "There is a man of a wellregulated life who holds his temper aright; but see, it is on account of the household that he has around him; it is on account of the companionship that he keeps; it is on account of the valorous purpose which he has fashioned in his own mind"-thus giving credit to these secondary causes, and not to that divine inspiration, that power from on high, which gives to all secondary causes their efficiency? When the lines are drawn in this world, and there are but two parties-one comprising those that live by the Spirit, and the other those that live by the flesh-why should a man live by the divine Spirit, and yet not give credit to the Spirit, by which he lives?

A physician has a right to the testimony of every man that he heals. In proportion to the desperateness of the disease which he has healed, he has a right to an open and wide-spread credit for the skill which he has displayed.

The excuses are invalid which men make for withholding this open profession of faith in Christ Jesus. Not only are they invalid, but they are dangerous.

The uncertainty of the result, is one reason that holds men back. They do not wish to be premature. They do not wish to bring disgrace upon the cause of Christ by not continuing. They express themselves in this delicate way. It is as if I should rescue a man from drowning, and he should say to me, quietly, and secretly, "I thank you now; but I do not wish to commit myself openly to giving you credit, lest I should not hold out in this grateful strain of my life. You have been my benefactor, and have saved me; but I want to see if the impression lasts with me before I confess it publicly." What will make the impression last but being true to it?

A man says, "I believe that I have entered upon a Christian life. If I understand my own thoughts, if I know my own settled purpose, it is that hereafter I will accept the law and the example of the Lord Jesus Christ as the rule of my life. I am determined to acknowledge my allegiance to him, and hold myself responsible for living in accordance with his will. But let me see how I succeed for a time, before I let it be known." Ah! look well to your heart. It is true that you may be actuated by a worthy motive, though it be a mistaken one,

for making this excuse; but it is more likely than not that you will find a sinister motive coiled up in it as well. While you talk of fear of bringing disgrace on the cause of Christ, is there not underneath that the fear of bringing disgrace on yourself, by falling away from an open confession? While you speak of not wishing to wound Christ in the house of his friends, may it not be that you are afraid of wounding yourself in the house of your companions or friends? While you seek to be rooted and grounded in the faith before you openly profess it, may it not be, after all, that you are leaving the root in dry ground, without water or nourishment; and that, for lack of that commitment, which you now need more than you will at any other time-for lack of firmness, and openness, and manliness-you may go back upon your steps?

The time to make known a man's purpose is when it is freshly formed. And surely, no man need say, "I have occasion to wait and consider," who has been taught in religion from the morning of his life. In the case of a heathen child that might be a wise purpose; but you who have been brought up in the knowledge of the Scriptures; you who have had doctrine exercised upon your reason perpetually for scores of years; you who have thought of religion in its relation to the time that now is, and in its relation to the time which is to come-you need to wait lest you should be precipitate? You, after thirty or forty years of instruction and vehement urging, need to wait lest you be precipitate? Why, there is no man that can be precipitate who has always lived in a Christian community, and had Christian instruction. It is not possible to take you suddenly and unawares. You are full enough of knowledge to make a simple beginning, and, making a beginning, to make an announcement of it.

But while this general confession is sound and obligatory, the emphasis and weight of this discourse I desire to rest upon what I may call the duty of a more particular or personal acknowledgment,-a more specific testimony to the help which men have received at the hands of the Lord.

I suppose that any of his ser

He was a man

In the first place, there is a mode in which men can bear testimony to their own conversion, to its need, and to its reality. Dr. Chalmer's conversion has been blessed as much as mons, and perhaps more, to the conversion of others. who had true ideas of morality, based on the Socinian doctrine. He was a man of great power; of great imagination; and in the early part of his ministry he had all the qualifications necessary to make him a leader of his age in the Christian Church. But later than that he was convinced of his lowness in the Christian life, he was convicted of sin, before God, he wrestled in distress of mind, and he finally threw

himself on the mercy of the Lord Jesus, and was brought out of darkness into great light. And then, from that moment, began the real power of his Christian ministry. It was this personal Pentecost which brought him out into the open day, that was largely the secret of that saving influence which he afterwards exerted upon others. And the statement of that fact has been very powerful ever since the fact, namely, that a man may be a good man, a true man, a preacher of the truth, and the doer of a great deal of good, without having reached the very beginning of a Christian experience. This after-experience of enlightenment, this lifting him up into a higher sphere, has been a very great power all over the world, to arouse men to a sense of the danger of rooting themselves upon a mere morality. Not that morality is to be despised, but morality compared to religion is what leaves are compared to fruit. Though the leaves are necessary to the fruit, they are not themselves the fruit.

Now, because a man may use this improperly, we ought not to infer that he should not use it at all. If God has revealed himself to you; if there has been an experience by which you have been made to know the hidden evil of your life; if you have consented to be the Lord Jesus Christ's, and if there has been a conscious change and elevation of your life, the fact of this conversion should be testified to. Others should know it. Sometimes it may be proper to state it in a public gathering, or in a social circle; but from man to man one of the most powerful instruments that you can employ for the conversion of others, is the relation of that personal history which God has given to you. If you talk with men, that in you which has been an experience is the most powerful to them.

Two men come together, one of whom is shrunk and crippled with a rheumatic affection, and the other of whom is walking in health and comfort; and the well man says to the other, "My friend, I know how to pity you. I spent fifteen as wretched years as any man ever spent in the world. I, too, was a miserable cripple, in the same way that you are." And the man with rheumatism at once says, "You were?" He sees him walk; he sees how lithe and nimble he is; he sees that he can straighten out his limbs, and that his joints are not swollen; he sees that he is in the enjoyment of all his bodily powers; and he is eager to know more about it. "Yes, I was as bad off as you are, and I suffered everything." "Tell me what cured you." There is nothing that a man wants to hear so much as the history of one who has been cured, if he, too, is a sufferer.

This is so, not only where the suffering is physical, but also where it is spiritual. It is so where a man suffers from sinful dispositions, and is discouraged, hopeless. Everybody makes some fight against