IX. GLORIFYING GOD IN THE NAME CHRISTIAN. "But if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this name."—1. Pet. iv. 16. The Revised Version makes more explicit and more vivid this heartfelt note of the Apostle. "Let him glorify God in this behalf," was the old reading. But the new text is better-"Let him glorify God in this name." It is not only the fact of the Christian's suffering that may make for glory, but it is because he suffers as a Christian. Professing himself a Christian, known as a Christian, drawing the fire of persecution. as a Christian, the name itself the object of hostility and obloquy, he is still not to be ashamed of the name. Rather, the suffering is to be the highway to triumph. When martyrdom began, when his life began to be poured out as an offering, then should begin also the song of the Lord in the sublime victory of faith. “Let him glorify God in this name "! The humble disciple stands in the arena, amid the curious gaze of excited, breathless thousands-stands there ready to suffer and to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. The hungry lions are held in leash, eager to spring upon their prey. Again and again is life promised him, if only he will deny that he is a Christian; but again and again the voice is unfalteringly heard, borne over the vast still ness of the throng-"I am a Christian." It is the oftseen picture of the blood of the martyrs becoming the seed of the Church. Myriads of them, fathers, mothers, young men, maidens, as they hear the wild cry, "To the lions!" steadily confess, and deny not. They bear witness in the tragic climax of their faith. Suffering, dying, the light of eternal life falling along the path of martyrdom, they glorify God in the name Christian. The exhortation is indeed thus emphatic. It appealed to a fact; it interpreted an experience. To wear the name Christian, and to suffer and die for it, is to glorify God. But, as we may rightly ask, Why is it that the name occurs so infrequently in the Word of God? It is not a constant name of actual use in Apostolic history, as we read that history. It does not stand out time after time in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read of the planting and training of churches. It does not occupy place after place distinctly, purposely, in the progress of Christian doctrine, whether in Paul's first letter or John's last epistle. It is not current coin in the meetings and greetings of believers. Other names, many of them, are used, and used many a time, not only each one distinctly appropriate, but occurring so often in such a connection, and with such a purpose, that their very occurrence is an impressive lesson of the fullness and richness of the life worthy of the Gospel. There they are, sprinkled thickly on the New Testament pages-"disciples," and "brethren," and "saints;" or "those of the Way," "the elect," "the faithful." These are designations, specific and pointed in their recurrence, not to call up dozens of other terms and phrases that are more freely and fluidly used in luminous truths of Divine doctrine and spiritual experience. If, as is true, all of these names have, one by one, their appropriate signification, each one glowing with light and life, much more the name Christian. If disciple is used because it so modestly means a learner; if, as we read of brethren, we know the time of humanity had come for men, on the large scale, to deny themselves and even to lay down their lives for one another, because the Son of God had died for them all; if "God's husbandry" reveals the loving and patient hand of God in human lives; if "the body of Christ" represents how closely His people are joined together with one another, and all closely together with Him-I repeat, each term, each phrase, indeed glowing with light and life, still, above them all, comprehending them all, shining in a glory that envelops all the rest, is the unitedly scriptural and catholic name CHRISTIAN. Three times, and three times only, the name occurs in the New Testament. The way it occurs, where used and how used, makes plain why we find it so few times. But in these three Scriptures there is the secret of the glory of the name Christian. It is not for nothing that it appears to stand in the background in the New Tes. tament. In that fact, fairly weighed and understood, we shall see the reason why it shines conspicuously in the foreground of the progress of the Gospel to-day. Evidently not at all heard in the first days of the churches of Judea, evidently not current in Paul's preaching nor in Paul's practice amid his wide missions to the Gentiles, nowhere a constant note of Apostolic doctrine or writing, but a single note of one Apostle's pen, in that one time of the three times of its occurrence it reveals itself in its origin, its history, its glory. |