STUDY XII. TESTIMONY AND THE EXTENSION OF THE KINGDOM. "So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die, and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. And thou, son of man, say unto the house of Israel: Thus ye speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. xxxiii. 7-11.) PART I. CHRIST'S METHOD OF EXTENDING THE Ir is a most remarkable thing that Christ left no written records of his life, even though he was engaged in founding a world-wide empire. Neither do we have any intimation that he instructed any biographer to set down his sayings. He took twelve peasant people, kept them with him for three years, filled them with his Spirit, helped them to catch his message of God, and left them to spread his kingdom through testimony. Christ to-day expects each Christian to become a competent experimenter in the field of religious truth. He expects that each one will win another. He commanded us to go out and win others until all nations have been won. In the use of this method Christ himself set the example. Many of his very greatest statements of truth were made to one person, or at least to a very small group. One thinks of the wonderful conversation with Nicodemus, the woman at the well, Zacchæus, and others; and they went away with a new sense of God in their souls. This was also the method of the early Church. St. Paul in the Roman prison saw one man after another for two long years and bore his personal testimony to them. Peter preached one of his best sermons to the man on the way down to Gaza and brought a man face to face with God. It is said of the Waldensians that every man was a personal worker. "He who has been a disciple for seven days looks out some one whom he may teach in turn, so that there is a continual increase." This is the great method of work in mission fields even to-day. When I was in Seoul, Korea, I met a great old Christian, Ye Song Che. He was a member of the first legation to represent Korea at our own national capital. Imprisoned after his return to Korea because of his radical reform ideas, he became a Christian while in prison. He is now the Religious Work Director of the Seoul Young Men's Christian Association. His one great task is personal work. He is absolutely untiring in his personal testimony. He is a type of the native Christian. Jesus Christ means so much to them that they at once want to share him with their friends. We Americans are so accustomed to the gospel message, we so little appreciate what it has done for us, that we are very recreant about our duty. But this is Christ's approved method, and the Church must adopt it if Christianity is ever to be triumphant. STUDY XII. TESTIMONY AND THE EXTENSION OF THE KINGDOM. "But an angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza: the same is desert. And he arose and went: and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship; and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some one shall guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth: in his humiliation his judgment was taken away: his generation who shall declare? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other? And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, preached unto him Jesus." (Acts viii. 26-35.) PART II. MANY CAN BE REACHED ONLY THROUGH PERSONAL TESTIMONY. DEALING, as I do, with many large meetings for men, I am constantly struck with the small number who hear the message compared with those who do not. A very small percentage attend religious services of any kind. It would be hazardous to say how large a percentage never attend, but it is appalling when we think of the millions who never hear the public presentation of the Christian message. If these are ever to be won, it must be through the method of personal testimony. Again, there are many who do occasionally attend religious services, even those who attend regularly, who will never |