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THE KING’S BUSINESS the further fact that they do not seem to think that because they have been elevated to very exalted positions they are now excused from alle- glance to their churches and co-operation in their work. These men and all m authority should have the very earnest support of all Christians by t/?eiI,.Prayers- We are commanded to pray for all who are in authority (1 Timothy 2:1, 2), and our leading quiet and peaceable lives depends largely upon our obeying this commandment of God. It is to be feared that many present-day Christians consider it their duty rather to criticize those that are in authority than to pray for them. There is an especial obligation resting upon Christians to pray for their President and his counsellors when those officials have occupied such prominent positions in the Church of Christ as these men have. Witnessing for Christ A S CHRISTIANS', what is our chief business in the world? It is to bear witness. The whole Scripture goes to show from the beginning that God’s call is a call to testimony. From Enoch on to David, from Isaiah to Saul of Tarsus, all were witnesses. The reason for the very being of Israel was this: “Ye are My witnesses.” The reason for their national rejection was that they failed to fulfill their calling. Even worse, they bore false witness; and the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles through them (Rom. 2:24). • , The fitness of witnesses is their personal experience of the facts to which they bear testimony. They must be able, like Him, whose name is “the Faith ful and true Witness,” to say, “We speak that we do know; and testify that we have seen.” Every real Christian has experience of the power of the Word of God; convictions wrought in his own soul that it is true; convictions borne out in his appropriation of it to his conscious need; and the application of it in his daily life. There are varieties of experience peculiar to individuals, there are degrees of apprehension of the Divine revelations. But the professing Chris tian who cannot say, “Whereas I was blind, now I see,” has need to examine himself “whether he be in the faith.” It was personal testimony to personal experience, a testimony of the mouth, certified by the works of faith, that spread the Gospel, built the Church and sowed the fertile blood of martyrdom; and it is by the same means that the work must be carried on to the end, for “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me! If you see, say so ; Christ’s critics could not contradict the healed man:
“They were all doctors of great renown, The great men of that famous town— The man they jeered and laughed to scorn Was unlearned, poor and humbly born; But he knew better far than they What came to him that Sabbath day, And what the Christ had done for him He knew, and not the Sanhedrim. ‘I know not what this man may be, Sinner or saint, but as for me, One thing I know, that I am he Who once was blind, and now I see.’ ”
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