t he knows, and who can say, 'that
which our eyes have beheld, that which we have handled, of the Word of
life, we make known unto you.' And so, by the power of personal
experience speaking out in our lives, and by the power of it alone, as I
believe, will victories be won, and the witness of Jesus Christ be
repeated in the world. Christian men and women, the old saying which was
addressed by a prophet to Israel is more true, more solemnly true of us,
and presses on us with a heavier weight of obligation, as well as lifts
us up into a position of greater blessedness: 'Ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord.' That is what you and I are here for--to bear witness,
different and yet like to, the witness borne by the Lord. We have all to
do that, by words, though not only by them. That is the obligation that
a great many Christian people take very lightly. That yoke of Jesus
Christ many of us slip our necks out of. If He has witnessed, you have
to confess. But some of you carry your Christianity in secret, and
button your coats over the cockade that should tell whose soldiers you
are, and are ashamed, or too shy, or too nervous, or too afraid of
ridicule, or not sufficiently sure of your own grip of the Master, to
confess Him before men. I beseech you remember that a Christian man is
no Christian unless 'with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,'
as well as 'with the heart' belief is exercised unto righteousness.

III. Lastly, we have here the practical issue of all this.

'I charge thee before God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus
Christ, that thou keep the commandment without spot.' The 'commandment,'
of course, may be used in a specific sense, referring to what has just
been enjoined, but more probably we are to regard the same thing which,
considered in its relation to Jesus Christ, is His testimony, as being,
in its relation to us, His commandment. For all Christ's gospel of
revelation that He has made of Himself to the world, is meant to
influence, not only belief and feeling, but conduct and character as
well. All the New Testament, in so far as it is a record of what Christ
is, and thereby a declaration of what God is, is also for us an
injunction as to what we ought to be. The whole Gospel is law, and the
testimony is commandment, and we have to keep it, as well as to confess
it. Let me put the few things that I have to say, under this last
division of my subject, the practical issue, into the shape