eople, just converted, in the very
centre of a strong, compact, organised, self-confident, supercilious
heathenism, insisted upon being heard, and got itself made audible,
simply by the purity and the consistency of the lives of its members. So
that Paul, a few weeks, or at most a few months, after the formation of
the church, could say, 'From you sounded out the word of the Lord, not
only in Macedonia and Achaia,' your own province and the one next door
to it, 'but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad.'
No man knows how far his influence will go. No man can tell how far his
example may penetrate. Thessalonica was a great commercial city. So is
Manchester. Hosts of people of all sorts came into it as they come here.
There were many different circles which would be intersected by the
lives of this Christian church, and wherever its units went they carried
along with them the conviction that they had turned from idols to serve
the living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.

And so, dear brethren, if our witness is to be worth anything it must
have this penetrating quality. There is a difference in sounds as there
is a difference in instruments. Some of them carry further than others.
A clear voice will fling words to a distance that a thick, mumbling one
never can attain. One note will travel much further than another. Do you
see to it that your notes are of the penetrating sort.

And then, again, the note should be a musical one. There is nothing to
be done for God by harshness; nothing to be done by discords and
gangling; nothing to be done by scolding and rebuke. The ordered
sequence of melodious sound will travel a great deal further than
unmusical, plain speech. You can hear a song at a distance at which a
saying would be inaudible. Which thing is an allegory, and this is its
lesson,--Music goes further than discord; and the witness that a
Christian man bears will travel in direct proportion as it is
harmonious, and gracious and gentle and beautiful.

And then, again, the note should be rousing. You do not play on a
trumpet when you want to send people to sleep; dulcimers and the like
are the things for that purpose. The trumpet means strung-up intensity,
means a call to arms, or to rejoicing; means at any rate, vigour, and is
intended to rouse. Let your witness have, for its utmost signification,
'Awake! thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead; and Christ shall
give thee light.'