m, shrank
from the perilous task because Paul had been sent to 'bind them that
call upon the name of the Lord,' and to persecute them. We find the
same phrase recurring in other connections, so that, on the whole, we
may take the expression as a recognised designation of Christians.

This was their characteristic, that they prayed to Jesus Christ. The
very first word, so far as we know, that Paul ever heard from a
Christian was, 'Lord Jesus! receive my spirit.' He heard that cry of
calm faith which, when he heard it, would sound to him as horrible
blasphemy from Stephen's dying lips. How little he dreamed that he
himself was soon to cry to the same Jesus, 'Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do?' and was in after-days to beseech Him thrice for
deliverance, and to be answered by sufficient grace. How little he
dreamed that, when his own martyrdom was near, he too would look to
Jesus as Lord and righteous Judge, from whose hands all who loved His
appearing should receive their crown! Nor only Paul directs desires
and adoration to Jesus as Lord; the last words of Scripture are a cry
to Him as Lord to come quickly, and an invocation of His 'grace' on
all believing souls.

Prayer to Christ from the very beginning of the Christian Church was,
then, the characteristic of believers, and He to whom they prayed,
thus, from the beginning, was recognised by them as being a Divine
Person, God manifest in the flesh.

The object of their worship, then, was known by the people among whom
they lived. Singing hymns to Christus as a god is nearly all that the
Roman proconsul in his well-known letter could find to tell his
master of their worship. They were the worshippers--not merely the
disciples--of one Christ. That was their peculiar distinction. Among
the worshippers of the false gods they stood erect; before Him, and
Him only, they bowed. In Corinth there was the polluted worship of
Aphrodite and of Zeus. These men called not on the name of these
lustful and stained deities, but on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And everybody knew whom they worshipped, and understood whose
men they were. Is that true about us? Do we Christian men so
habitually cultivate the remembrance of Jesus Christ, and are we so
continually in the habit of invoking His aid, and of contemplating
His blessed perfections and sufficiency, that every one who knew us
would recognise us as meant by those who call on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ?

If this be t