SERMON XXXV.

WITNESSES FOR JESUS CHRIST.

AT

ACTS 1. 8.

Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.

T this Easter season we naturally turn to the consideration of those precious words which fell from our Blessed Lord during the interval that elapsed between His Resurrection and His Ascension into heaven. And among these sayings, the text has the distinction of being the last; it is the parting utterance of our ascending Saviour. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." And then we are told that "when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight."

Undoubtedly these words of Jesus must have had a meaning for the Apostles which they could have for no other men. The Apostles had been told that they were to "bear witness," because they "had been with" Jesus "from the beginning." a And when afterwards St. Matthias was elected unto the place of Judas, the electors were

a St. John xv. 27.

reminded that their choice was limited to "those men who had companied with" themselves "all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them," since they needed a witness to the Resurrection." a Thus the text is in fact an anticipation of the history which is afterwards unfolded in the Acts of the Apostles. Parting from the holy city, the circles of missionary effort widen perpetually; they reach beyond Judæa, beyond Samaria, beyond the bounds of civilised heathendom, towards the full measure of their predestined range, "the uttermost part of the earth."

Still, although for the Apostles personally, and for the Apostles as representing their successors in the Episcopate, our Lord's words had this distinguished and unrivalled significance, they also contain a wider range of meaning, which leads me to invite your attention to them this evening. For the Apostles standing before their departing Lord impersonate not merely the Ministry, but the Church; and Jesus, in His last words on earth, speaks not merely to the clerical order; He bequeaths a legacy of glory and of suffering to the millions of Christendom. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me."

I.

"Witnesses unto Me." Our Lord Himself, in His sacred Person, is the solemn truth, the glorious reality, to which His servants are to bear their witness. Certainly in a parallel passage in St. Luke's Gospel our Lord, when referring to His Passion and His Resurrection," is represented as saying, "Ye are witnesses of these things." But there are some grounds for believing that the words in St. Luke may have been uttered at a slightly b St. Luke xxiv. 46-48.

a Acts i. 21,

22.

earlier date than that of the actual Ascension. And although, as a matter of fact, the "witness to the Resurrection" was, from the necessity of their case, the leading feature of the recorded preaching of the Apostles, and witness to His redemptive work was clearly involved in any true witness to the Person of Jesus, still we may not overlook the precise form of expression which our Lord adopts in the text. 'Witnesses unto Me! Others might witness to My miracles, they were wrought in the face of day; others might repeat My discourses, "spoken in the temple, whither the Jews always resort;" and you, in witnessing to Me, will witness likewise to My works and to My teaching. But My works and My teaching are but the rays which proceed from My inmost life, My personality, Myself; and it is to this, to nothing less than this, to all that this implies, that I bid you witness.'

Contrast our Lord's words with what we should expect from a great man at the present day. We should expect him to tell us that his endowments or his achievements were after all the gift of Heaven; that in himself he was nothing, and unworthy of the greatness which had been forced upon him. If he should forget his native poverty, and claim honour for himself, as distinct from the gift or influence with which he had been endowed, then our good opinion would be outraged. We should, in our deep disappointment, proclaim him unworthy of his greatness, as being incapable of that modesty which is so winning in human conduct, because it is so true to the facts of human life. Jesus Christ our Lord defies this rule of human judgments, and the conscience of mankind justifies Him in defying it. He Who could say to the men of His generation, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin ?"a; He Who could dare to utter the tremendous words, "I and the

a St. John viii. 46.

Father are One,”a could truly feel that it was impossible for Him to eclipse any higher greatness by drawing attention to Himself. His words were His Own. His works were His Own. As God He was the author and giver of the gifts which He received as Man. And therefore He thought it not robbery to draw the eyes of men away from the miracles and words which flashed forth from Him, away from the sights and sounds which heralded a mighty presence, to Himself, the Worker, the Speaker, Who gave their greatness to the words which He spake, and to the works which He wrought. My brethren, the words of Jesus, which challenge" witness," attention, homage, reverence, love, for His personal Self, are only not intolerable because nothing less would have been adequate or true.

II.

But you ask, How can we bear witness to a person ? We can describe a fact like a miracle, or we can repeat an instruction like the Sermon on the Mount. We can witness to that which we know; but how can we know, how can we seize, feel, see, possess, so subtle, so impalpable a thing as a person? especially how can we witness to a superhuman person, to One Whom His Apostle describes as " over all, God blessed for ever;" to One Whom we name in the Creed, "God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God"?

Let me, by way of reply, suggest to you in turn another question. Can we be witnesses to each other? Unquestionably we can; for we can know each other. And by this knowledge we mean not knowledge of the form and colour of the body or features, but knowledge of that which gives to features and to form their interest, b Rom. ix. 5.

a St. John x. 30.

-knowledge of the invisible spirit which underlies them. That which interests man lastingly in his brother man, as being the seat and the object of human interest, is the soul. We cannot, indeed, see the soul with the eye of the body. But with the eye of the mind we can see it, and form a very clear conception of it, which we call "character." For in this life the soul is linked to the body on such terms, that it can come forth from the shadow of the invisible world, and assert its presence. It cannot be seen in its essence; but it can be seen in its effects. The body is but its home, and its instrument, which it moulds, bends, subdues, weakens or invigorates, overshadows or illuminates, by its presence. By the organs of the body the soul moves forth from its recesses, and enters into communion with other souls. Learned men have recently been discussing afresh that most interesting problem-the origin of language. But the Church of God has from the first seen in human language a special gift of God, complete when it was first given, and a counterpart of the gift of an immortal soul; an expression of its life; a medium of giving currency to its feeling and its thought. When a man speaks, we read in his language, in its form, in its tone, in its very accent, the movement of an undying spirit. We read the strength or weakness of an understanding, the warmth of a heart, the vigour or feebleness of a will; we read thought, resolve, feeling, character. Language is the living expression of the soul's life; it flows forth from the soul, as the spring of water from the fountain: "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."a Man cannot really disguise for long periods the true features of the soul, even though, like the ancient hypocrites of the days of David, he should give fair words with the mouth, but curse with the heart." a St. Matt. xii. 34.

b Ps. lxii. 4.