TRUE WITNESS-BEARING FOR CHRIST.
A WITNESS is one who, having knowledge of anything, gives his testimony about it. That which renders him a witness is the fact of his actual knowledge. He is called upon to tell what he knows, not what he thinks or suspects. In a court he makes oath to this fact of knowledge, and swears to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” In regard to Christ, witness-bearing is similar. It is testifying to what we know of Him. It is the statement of what His love actually has meant to us, what His care has done for us, what His example has aided us to be and to do. Naturally such testimony is different in the case of different persons. It is based upon a wide variety of experiences. To one Christ’s presence, by His Spirit, has been primarily an aid in overcoming temptation. To another it has been a comfort in distress. To others it has been an enlightenment of the moral and spiritual judgment, or an impulse to this or that form of Christian service, or a less definite, yet not less real, inspiration towards holier thought and life. Each of us must bear witness to what Christ has been to him. Yet all these and all other experiences of Christ’s presence and help have a common factor. They all mean, and are based upon, some real union of spirit and purpose between Him and ourselves. They all involve some actual, unmistakable knowledge of Him and intercourse with Him, not merely as a possibility but also as a realized experience. This is what gives sincerity and credibility to our witness-bearing. It is the same assurance as that of the man to whom Jesus had given sight: “Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” It is this substantial basis of fact behind our testimony which secures it acceptance. This is the reason why the philosophizing of the cultured sometimes, no matter how logical, reasonable, or eloquent, fails to have the persuasive power of the simple testimony of some comparatively uneducated person. Confining himself to what he knows about Jesus, and to what Jesus has done for him, he touches the hearts and convinces the judgments of others by the very fact that he appeals directly to that human nature which is common to us all. Witness-bearing may be by speech or by action or by both. But it always must be based upon personal knowledge in order to be of use.—Congregationalist.