June 16

"There arose no small stir concerning the Way."—Acts 19:23 (R.V.).

IT will be a significant and auspicious sign, if in connection with my life there should arise no small stir about the Way.

It will prove that my Christianity is thorough-going. It is not a convenient and conventional profession merely. It is a deep and vital experience of my soul. It has altered the current of my history. It has transformed the character of my being. It draws sharp, decided, distinct, the line of cleavage between what I was and what I am. It is so unmistakable that it attracts notice, and excites wonder, and awakens dislike.

It will prove, moreover, that my Christianity is public-spirited. I am not content when all is well with the little world which is myself; I travel out in thought and longing and prayer and effort to the greater world outside—the neighbours round about me, the town where I live, the country of which I am a citizen, the whole round earth, east and west and north and south. I look on the things of others.

And it will prove that my Christianity is aggressive. It cannot see a wrong without that stir and tumult of soul which issue in resistance to the wrong. It cannot meet an abuse, an idolatry, a sin, without condemning and opposing it. It is salt, with a certain biting incisiveness about it. It is light shining into the dark places, revealing their ugliness, chasing the gloomy and gruesome shadows away.

This is the Christianity which is greatly needed, but which is sure to encounter tribulation. Let me make very sure that it is mine.