1 W. A. N. Hall.
22 POWER FOR WITNESS
testimony that nothing really worthy of attainment in art, in science, or in the things of the spirit, is to be accomplished without effort.1
So he died for his faith. That is fine.
More than the most of us do. But stay. Can you add to that line
That he lived for it, too ?
It is easy to die. Men have died
For a wish or a whim — From bravado or passion or pride.
Was it hard for him ?
But to live : every day to live out
All the truth that he dreamt, While his friends met his conduct with doubt,
And the world with contempt.
Was it thus that he plodded ahead,
Never turning aside ? Then we'll talk of the life that he led.
Never mind how he died.
4. Two things remain. In all witnessing it is essential (1) that the subject of the witness be Christ, and (2) that the witness be in the Holy Spirit.
(1) The subject of all our witness must be the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the very last command of the Lord. He stands, as He utters it, with His feet upon the steps of the heavenly throne. As all through His earthly ministry, so now, almost from the place of bliss itself, " He commends Himself." He sends His followers out into the world on purpose, as their work of works, to bear a testimony. And that testimony is to be borne, first and last, to Himself. Man's immeasurable need is to be met by telling man, as only those who personally know can tell, about the Son of God and Man, the one Name of Life, Christ Jesus the Lord.
■[j It is true that the Bevised Version gives us one change of rendering here which is to be observed. Instead of " witnesses unto me," it reads, " my witnesses " ; and this is a closer rendering
1 W. A. N. Hall.
ACTS i. 8 23
of the Greek of St. Luke, or at least a rendering more likely to be quite close. Yet the difference, while we notice it, is not such as to negative, but rather to include, the meaning of the Authorized Version.1
Tf There is an interesting story of Dore\ the artist, that once, crossing the Italian frontier, he had mislaid his passport and was called upon to prove his identity. This he did by taking a sheet of common paper and a piece of charcoal, and tracing the homely, manly features of Victor Emmanuel. The officers knew that only Dore could draw like that. Challenged by the world as we are, is it not for us to trace, here and now, on the rough surface of our common lives, with only such instruments as our ordinary circum- stances afford, the character of our King ? " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples." 2
/ ii(2) The witness must be in the Holy Spirit. Without the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit our witness is bound to be a failure and a disappointment. Let none of us be content with a lower spiritual experience than God is willing to give us. As long as we keep our witness within the bounds of what we can obviously succeed in, we shall accomplish little, but when in abandonment of self, and in reliance on the Holy Spirit, we attempt great things for God, our success will exceed our highest hopes.
Wanting is — what? Summer redundant, Blueness abundant, —Where is the blot? Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same, — Framework which waits for a picture to frame : What of the leafage, what of the flower? Eoses embowering with nought they embower! Come then, complete incompletion, 0 comer, Pant through the blueness, perfect the summer! Breathe but one breath Kose-beauty above, And all that was death Grows life, grows love, Grows love ! 3
1 H. 0. G. Moule. 2 C. C. Albertson.
8 Browning, Dramatic Idylls, 167.
Whitsun Day.
Literature.
Adamson (T.), The Spirit of Power, 1.
Benson (R. M.), The Final Passover, iv. 628.
Chadwick (S.), Humanity and God, 205.
Church (R. W.), Pascal and other Sermons, 336.
Fuller (M.), The Lord's Day, 303.
Hopkins (E. H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 203.
Jowett (J. H.), The Transfigured Church, 9.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Ascension Day to Trinity
Sunday, 269. Luckock (H. M.), Footprints of the Apostles, 54. Macmillan (H.), The Garden and the City, 326. Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, 1st Ser., 259. Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, i. 475. Ritchie (D. L.), Peace the Umpire, 123. Robertson (A.), Venetian Sermons, 247. Shore (T. T.), Saint George for England, 109. Westcott (B. F.), Village Sermons, 213. Wheeler (W. C), Sermons and Addresses, 188. Woodford (J. R.), Sermons, ii. 67.
26
Whitsun Day.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. — Acts ii. 4.
1. The Day of Pentecost, or Whitsun Day, is the birthday of the Christian Church. On that day the Divine society was con- stituted. Not till Pentecost were Christians a distinct corporate body. On that day the Divine life, the life of the Holy Spirit of (Tod, was infused into its members, and the first cry of the new- born Divine society was praise — "They spake in other tongues the wonderful works of God."