SOME "I WILLS" OF JESUS CHRIST.
By Theodore L. Cuyler
NEARLY all of Christ's promises are conditional. We shall receive blessings when we ask aright; we shall find when we seek with all the heart; the door of love opens at the knock of faith. Jesus will do his part when we do our part. "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven." Here the condition on our part is a frank, open, honest acknowledgment of loyalty to our Lord in the face of sneer or scoff. When Christ bestows converting grace, he demands open confession. There is too much dark-lantern religion; too many try to slip along, we might almost say sneak along, toward heaven by a by-path. Are these cowardly souls quite certain that Christ will acknowledge them on the day of his triumphant appearing? But to those who fearlessly stand up for him, whether at the martyr's stake or against bitter opposition in the household, or the shop, or the social circle, or in public life, Jesus gives the precious assurance "I will never be ashamed of you." Another "I will" is the commission to practical service, the promise of usefulness. "I will make you fishers of men." Here is the self-multiplying power of the church. As soon as a church ceases to draw from the world, the world draws from it; if it does not convert others, it becomes perverted itself. Every follower of Christ should be a fisher for Christ—some angel quietly in their own households or Sunday-school class; some in a sick-room like the Dairyman's Daughter, or like a sweet suffering girl of my acquaintance, who has been shedding out the lustre of her piety during years of bodily agonies. When the Master says "follow me and I will make you fishers of men," he agrees to give the motive, which is love; the skill, which is heaven-guided tact; and the reward, which is an unfading crown. I do not believe that any Christian ever longed and labored and lived to win souls to God, and was disappointed.—Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, in Evangelist.