It is of no use to try to reform people without their knowing it. If our message of reform is so thickly sugar-coated that there is no unusual flavor to it, we may well doubt whether any good will be accomplished by it. Genuine reformers, who have a real message of reform for the people, can be easily distinguished from the ordinary time-servers of the day. They do not expect the world to come to them and to welcome their message with open arms, but they expect to go to the world and to command attention by the very authority of their message. John the Baptist rebuked sinners, from Herod the tetrarch to the humblest peasant, and when he had delivered his message, the response was, “What shall we do then?” Luther rebuked sinners, from the pope in Rome to the ordinary listeners in Wittenburg. Thousands abandoned the papacy and its corruptions, and accepted forgiveness and salvation through their personal faith in Christ, because of his burning message of warning and encouragement. But people cannot be turned from darkness to light without facing the matter in a very definite way. Those who accept this reform message to-day must do so under a genuine conviction that it is the last message of warning and salvation to a world on the verge of eternity, or they will give it up in the hour of temptation which is just upon us. Instead of conforming to the world in order to get a hearing for our message, let us go to the world with the true authority of God’s Word, which will secure a hearing for itself, and will conform those who receive it to the heavenly standard of character. We may be “wise as serpents; and harmless as doves,” but this does not mean that we can expect to convert people by adopting the tactics of the serpent. Let us speak the truth in love.