VISIBLENESS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE.
By Burdett Hart
CONSECRATION to Christ must reveal itself and justify itself in the visible conduct of life. Our Christ is a revealed Christ. He is a Christ of the world and for the world. He is not a cloistered Christ; he does not keep himself in the clouds, nor in the dazzling light of heaven. His work, his great redeeming work for us, was done in the sight of men, in the conspicuous places of the world. . . . Gethsemane and Calvary have inspired poetry of the people by their voices of pathos and agony beyond any other great endurances of heroes and martyrs, because the memory of his voluntary and priceless sufferings reverberates and thrills in their enduring and unforgotten names. He was in the world; he was seen among us. The tones of heaven were in his human voice. The light of heaven was in his pitying eyes. The help of heaven was in his hand. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father. Since he went away, his followers, by open confession and conduct, have reproduced his life, in lowly and unworthy ways it may be, but in methods and experiences which he has graciously accepted and blessed. . . . It is not enough to experience religion in the closet. It is not enough to come alone to God in repentance and faith, and to make loyal vows in private. They who follow the Master will follow him openly, before kings and populace, in country and in city, in the temple and by the well-side. He would have no disciple ashamed of him. He would have all who love him confess him before men. St. Paul's life was a life of declaration. He said: "I stand unto this day, having obtained the help that is from God, testifying both to small and great." He was an open confessor. He wanted to know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings. He would have gone into another Gethsemane and borne a cross up another Golgotha. He said: "I fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for the church." He knew what was meant when he wrote, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Gal. 6:17. We, too, if we are Christ's, must know something of this. Our Christian life must be lived out before the world. As, in olden time, men saw him on their streets and in their homes and in their assemblies, and knew that the Christ was visible, so must they see us in places of business and study, in all places where men are, and must know that the Christ, in the person of one who loves and serves him and represents him to them, is verily present. They must see him in us. We must speak his language. Such words as these that reached the intellect of Nicodemus and the conscience of the woman of Samaria; as revealed the young ruler to himself and made Pilate fear; as fell on the sad hearts of the multitudes, who in their hunger and thirst hung on his lips; as led officers, awed by his language, to say, "Never man so spake," must be our words to our associates and to strangers. We must speak the language of heaven amidst the Babel tongues of the world. Christian songs have often awakened responsive tones in dull souls, and Christian testimony has convinced gainsayers of the reality of personal faith in Christ. We must also interpret the meaning of discipleship by the visible fruits of discipleship. From us men must learn that it means Christ reproduced in his loving spirit, in his tender sympathy, in his attractive grace. They must see that religion is not mere profession, but that it carries a large, generous, winning practice. Light must so go out from us into darkened and wretched souls that duty shall be made clear to them; that they shall see the peril of sin and the way of deliverance, the attractions of the cross and of heaven. There was profound meaning in the words of Him who was the Light of the world, to his disciples, when he told them, "Ye are the light of the world." Moreover, we must make it clear that our religion is one of helpfulness. Help was laid on One who was mighty to save, when our salvation was laid on Christ, and the pitiful cry of the heavy-laden to him was, Lord, help us. Men need it now. Involved in sin, tangled in the meshes of worldliness, taken captive by Satan at his will, they want the helping hand of a brother for their rescue. It is for us to give it in his name. The joy of giving it, the joy of helping to save a brother, is the sweetest joy this side of heaven; it is akin to the joy of Christ, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Jeanie Dean's words, in the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," are, "It is na when we sleep soft and make merrily oursels, that we think on other people's sufferings. But when the hour o' trouble comes to the mind or to the body, and when the hour o' death comes to high or low, then it is na what we hae dune for oursels, but what we hae dune for others, that we think on maist pleasantly." This is the Christian way to live; and, so living, we shall never die. —Rev. Burdett Hart, D. D., in New York Observer.