Honesty and truthfulness and the common virtues have new meaning. Then we will say we are growing more sympathetic with men. Somehow the fellowship we have with Christ has made life different. Formerly we did not care much for men, but now we increasingly love men and want to help them. Lastly, we can say we are beginning to find new joy in fellowship with Christ. When we put ourselves in his presence we find peace and satisfaction. All this has come because we so related ourselves to the forces of the spiritual kingdom that we are able to find its truth—that is, we took Jesus Christ at his word; we surrendered ourselves to him, and this has been the result. Like chemists in the laboratory, we have taken the theory that Christ was real, we have acted on it, and the results have proved him to be what he claims. This is the simple, straight forward report of an experience with Christ. We may not be able to say all of these things. We may be new Christians, and only part of this testimony consciously true with us; we will therefore report as a scientist reports, that we have found some facts and are continuing our work in the Christian laboratory. We expect our fund of experience to grow. Needs must there be one way, our chief, For I, a man, with men am linked, Unshared. -Browning's "Christmas Eve." STUDY V. CHRIST'S METHOD OF EXTENDING THE KINGDOM. "Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matt. v. 13-16.) "One of the two that heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He findeth first his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah (which is, being interpreted, Christ). He brought him unto Jesus. Jesus looked upon him, and said, Thou art Simon the son of John: thou shalt be called Cephas (which is by interpretation, Peter)." (John i. 40-42.) PART 7. IS PERSONAL TESTIMONY EFFECTIVE? MANY men would gladly give their personal testimony but for the fact that they feel it is useless. They consider themselves amateurs, immature experimenters in the spiritual realm, and they doubt the effectiveness of their report. Such men should remember that it is not the extent of their experience but the reality of such experience that counts. If I wish to interest you in chemistry, I do not attempt to lay before you at one time the whole achievements of that wonderful science. I choose out one fact, such as the combination of oxygen and hydrogen to form water. I make clear to you the process and the practical uses to which these processes may be put. That convinces you that chemistry is worth the while, and you begin experimenting in chemistry yourself. Similarly, to introduce a man to one fundamental reality of Christian life will set him working in this realm for himself. If I can show by experience how Christ has given me a sense of forgiveness, I may not need to do more. This is precisely what any genuine testimony is apt to do. Men are all too ready for a message of reality, and if you state plainly your experience they are readily influenced. In one of our colleges recently a man whose brother is a col lege man and now on the mission field, came up and asked me if I knew his brother. I replied affirmatively, and a few words were passed. There were a number around, so I asked him to wait a moment. When I was a little free I said to this student that I hoped he was a Christian. "No, . he was not; but he knew he ought to be." I spent five minutes with him, and then asked him to keep this in mind as he worked in the shops that afternoon. That night, when I called for those who had decided to be Christians, he was one of the first to stand. All he needed was a simple word of testimony. In a Western State university there was a fine fellow who, a professor told me, was considered the greatest athlete in the State. He was clean and manly, but not a Christian. I asked the secretary to bring him to me for an interview. He came, and I presented in brief outline what it would mean for him to be a Christian. I tried to make clear the reasonableness of Christian life. In twenty minutes he gave me his hand and said: "I will give my life to Jesus Christ, will join the Church, and go to work." He just needed a word of personal testimony. He had been hearing sermons and addresses for years, but Christianity had never been presented to him personally. At the University of Illinois another splendid athlete came for conference. He was in doubt about the reality of Christian experience. A simple report of what I and thousands of other men had found to be real, put in terms which he could understand, and he immediately said: "I will try." An hour later in a decision meeting he was the first man to rise to declare his decision to be a follower of Christ. Is personal testimony effective? H. Clay Trumbull in his "Individual Work for Individuals" claims that he knows of more people won to Christ through his personal testimony than through all his public ministry. And yet he was a great public speaker with exceptionally large opportunities. Rev. John Timothy Stone, pastor of the Brown Memorial Church, in Baltimore, now pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, a man who has had exceptional opportunity for the public preaching of the gospel, bears similar testimony in his volume, "Recruiting Men for Christ." Personal testimony has always been effective, but perhaps never so much as now, when men are searching for reality as never before. |