Now is the test of your weakness or of your strength. Now it will be seen who is possessed by that enervated and timid spirit which inspires so many faltering hearts, and directs so many enfeebled wills, in this day of conflict for the Church of God.
And, above all, your love is being sifted. Is your hold upon the Church and her teaching “rooted and grounded in love?” God is trying your love—your love to Himself, to Christ, to the Truth. The head is not a casket in which Truth can safely lie enshrined. It is soon stolen from thence. But, if you have lodged it in the heart, and embedded it there in folds of love, men may take out your heart, but out of your heart they cannot take the Truth.
It is for want of love that so many men among us are cowards,—that so much is sacrificed to the first appearance of danger,—that so much is offered up to expediency, to popularity, to success. The world is a worshipper of success. But the world has no love for the Truth. The world knows nothing of the blessed joy of undergoing persecution and danger, and making ventures, for the Truth’s sake. And so, as “Ephraim has mixed himself” with the world, he is as “a cake not turned,” and “strangers have devoured his strength,” in this age of concession and falling away.
But what says “He Who sitteth upon the throne?” “He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” [19] But the “fearful” or cowardly, (the δειλοὶ,) and the unfaithful or “unbelieving” (the ἄπιστοι,) the deserters who fall off from want of faith and patience, what of them? “they shall have their part with murderers, and whore-mongers, and idolaters, and liars, in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [20a]
And what says the Apostle? When love is perfect [20b] then we have “boldness in the crisis,” or judgment, or trial, of faith; and “love casts out fear.” And fear is the parent of all unlawful concessions.
We owe the Truth an external service as well as an internal devotion. And they have no love for the Truth who withhold an external service. The faith of the heart will no more avail without the confession of the mouth, than the confession of the mouth will avail without the faith of the heart.
If it be enough for Christ that you know Him, though you confess Him not before men, it will also be enough for you that He knows you, though, at the last, He confess you not before men. It is not enough to say, “I hold the Truth in my heart, but I am silent before the world.” And, therefore, Christ does not say, “he that confesseth Me in his heart;” but Christ says, “he that confesseth Me before men.” They are vital words, these words of Christ. Lay them up in your hearts, and live by them. Hear them at length. “Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father Which is in Heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Which is in Heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.” [21]
POSTSCRIPT.
While these pages are passing through the press, the Government has yielded the point at issue. It has yielded, against its own convictions. It has yielded to pressure,—and to pressure from those whom it considers wrong-headed, and unreasonable, and unjust.
The Government believed and declared that it was fair, and right, and just, and necessary “for legislative purposes,” that the people of England should confess the religious profession which they make—each man his own. The Government still believes in the fairness, and justice, and necessity of such a declaration. But, because some persons object to it, on the ground that no man ought to be asked what his religion is, or whether he has any religion at all, and because those persons have political influence, the Government has yielded its convictions to those persons.