The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1913-02-14
Winning Men
By Howard Asaew JOhnsOa D. D.


early church that there were many
who believed in Christ, but did
not confess him" (John 12:42)
John tells Us the recson. They
loved the praise Of men more than
the praise Of God" There are
secret believers in our time who
will not admit that this same ex
planation applies to their failure tn
confess Christ; but for most men
there is reason to b, b,lieve the same
explanation obtains, When a man
claims to believe in Christ and to
be his follower, but declines to con,
fess him openly before men, the
reason is to be found in his relation
with men, as contrasted with his
relation to God If he were eager
to do the will of God, he would be
ready to admit that the spirit as
we'll as the letter of the New Testa-
ment emphasizes open confession on
the part of the believer as required
of our Lord, That day that Christ
asked the disciples, Whom do We
say that / ann" he was pressing
their faith to the point of public
confession. When Christ charged
his disciples to be his witnesses, it
is perfectly evident that he expect
ed them to confess him with the
mouth, - as Paul puts ts A wit
ness is not one who simply believes
something, bu who tells it.
Thorough-going allegiance to Christ
involves hearty, open assertion Of
loyalty t. him rs king and Lord.
In spit - gh-s4 clear teachings
and reasonable xpectatious, there
are Those " ho lusi-t that thev can
be true Christians without making
this public Confessions of their faith.
The real chdtacIrr Ut mans alle-
glance will appear in his open atti-
tude toward Christ He may have
all the grdces q q manner OF a
Christian gentlemen, but if in his
heart there is no spiri Of personal
allegiance to Christ, he is not being
transformed in the realities of the
spiritua lite which make true
character Il WAS with this supreme
truth in his thought that Christ
spake a5 h. did + garding the neces-
sitv of CONTRASTING him Matt. 10:
80 33) The point is that Christ
cannOO claim Us as b s If we are not.
Even more striking are his words
in Mark 1874 38, There are several
classes Of secret brlieyerrs. some OF
whom we may note
Some secret believers are waiting
to confess Christ openly because of
the mistaken idea that they must
have snm- wonderful experience
first. They have known of persons
who have had rem trkab expert
encp, aud tn y aV had nothing
OF the sort. But no two people are
alike. Pau had start ng expli
ence; but John and Andrew had q
very quiet one. The writer was told !
by a young man that he was wait
ing for a sense of complete satisfac-
ton before he should.confess Christ.
He was reminded that so long as he
knew there wa one thing which his
Lord desired him to do which he
had not done, it would be impossi.
BILE to have the desired feeling. He
was holding at arm S length the very
thing he said he wanted, refusing
to take it. He asked if the pastor
thought he would have this sense of
provided he should
unite with the church. AS he SEEM
ed in very truth to be one who only
lacked this one thing, the pastor
assured him that it was reasonably
certain. The next communion he
openly confessed his Lord, and in a !
little time afterwards testified that !
the sense of satisfaction had come. I
There are others who are influence !
ed away from open allegiance be-
cause of friends or relatives who are
not sympathetic with their desire.
For some years a lady waited to