children we cannot be too direct, too straightforward; we cannot be too childlike in our intercourse with them, yet we must not be childish. Daily life is more powerful than Sunday life. The face as a dial cannot too purely, too truly reflect the innermost thoughts and imaginations of the heart. Be Christians, and your voluntary and involuntary influence will be Christian also. Be salt, and the savor will necessarily be good; be lights, and the influence that radiates from you will necessarily be light. What we want to be is not to look Christians, or to pretend Christians, or to profess Christians, but to be Christians. You need not then so carefully guard yourself, you need not be on the ceaseless watch what you do. Take an anagram; read it from the right or from the left, or from the top or from the bottom; it reads the same thing. Take a Christian, look at him at one angle, or look at another angle, look at him in any light or in any direction, and he is a Christian still. The great secret of getting rid of a vast amount of trouble and inconvenience, is being a Christian; and when you are a Christian your eye will be single, your body will be full of light, and all influences, sanctified and blessed by the Holy Spirit of God, will be sanctifying, and will bless all that are connected with you. How responsible a thing is daily life! CHAPTER XIV. THE CHRISTIAN. "Yon cottager who weaves at her own door, Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true, O happy peasant! O unhappy bard! "And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."-Acts ix. 26. THE character of which the name Christian is the exponent, or representative, has been found from the beginning. Adam was a Christian without the name; Judas was a Christian without the character. The followers of Christ in the earliest days of the Christian dispensation, were called by their enemies "Nazarenes," "Galileans," "Jews," "people who turned the world upside down." They were called by themselves "disciples, believers in Jesus, saints, brethren" - brethren from their love to each other, saints from the holiness of their character, believers from their trust, and disciples of Jesus from their manifest and unswerving obedience to him. But in Antioch they were called by a name, -new, as a sound, but old, as a reality; and they were called so, not by themselves, nor yet by their enemies, but, as the word really implies, by God himself. They were called by themselves disciples, brethren, saints; they were called by their enemies Nazarenes, Galileans, Jews; but this name I think was a baptism immediately from God himself. 66 The Greek word which is translated in Acts xi. 26, called," is not the usual word so translated. For instance, "Many are called' · Kλntoɩ from kaλew, "to call." Again, "The called in Christ Jesus," where the word is kλnтol. But in the Acts, a new Greek word is introduced, namely, Xpnμarisw; and the question is, in what sense that word is used throughout the New Testament? It is always, or nearly so, used in the sense of a heavenly call directly from God himself. The first instance occurs in Matt. ii. 12, "And being warned of God in a dream." The Greek word translated "called" in the Acts is translated in this passage, 66 warned," and such warning was directly from God himself. In the 22d verse of the same chapter, "Notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream." That is the same Greek word, and it means there a Divine warning or call. We find the same word used in Luke ii. 26, "And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost." That is the same word, again used in the sense of a Divine call, only the person calling here is the Holy Ghost. It occurs in Acts "And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God." That is the same verb translated "called" in my text. Again, in x. 22. Hebrews viii. 5, we find an instance of its use, "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God." That is the same Greek word translated "called" in the Acts. And lastly, in Hebrews xi. 7, "By faith Noah, being warned of God." That also is the very same Greek word. Now, in every instance, the word which is rendered "called" as applied to Christians, is used to denote an admonition, a voice, or command, from God himself. And therefore, we might translate the passage from the Acts, "The believers were first divinely called Christians in Antioch." If this be not a name originally pronounced in scorn, as some have supposed, nor a name assumed by the Christians themselves to denote their relationship to the Great Founder, Author, and Finisher, of the faith, but one that was bestowed, not as a brand, but as an honor, a beauty, and a glory, directly and immediately from God himself, we are all very much to blame in adding to our generic, distinctive, and noblest name, even a Divine one, so many human additions as those into which the visible Church is so sadly and unhappily split. The first name, pronounced from heaven, was "Christian," and we may depend upon it it will be the last; for just in proportion as we grow towards the beautiful original in character, in the same proportion I will those assumed human names. Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Episcopalians, Churchmen, Dissentersdrop off. Just as Christ is in a Christian's heart, ail and in all, so, when that inner influence becomes an outer life, "Christian" will be in a Christian's vocabulary all and in all, also. We will not dwell longer upon the direct evidence, though we might adduce further proofs, that this name was divinely bestowed. Let us notice what seems a hint of the future new nomenclature given in ancient prophecy. In Isaiah lxii. 2, "And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name." Again, in Isa. lxv. 15, it is said, "For the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name;" that is, that the name "Hebrew," or the name "Jew" from Judah, or son of Abraham," should be lost in the new name, that of Christian. 66 What is meant by this name? It is often misapplied. It is often diluted. We read of geographical Christians, ecclesiastical Christians, and we call all who are baptized, and profess the gospel, Christians. But all who are baptized are, not Christians, and all who profess Christianity are not Christians. The name has a deep and precious significance. As a name, it can have no value; as a life, it is precious indeed. What does a Christion denote? First, it denotes one who is said in Scripture language to be "in Christ." "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." "I knew a man in Christ." And again, says the apostle, "that I may be found in Christ." Is not this a strange expression? Its very peculiarity indicates. that there is some deep meaning and relationship in it. We never say that a Stoic is a man in Zeno, or that a Peripatetic is a man in Aristotle, or that a servant is in his master, or a pupil in his teacher. People would smile at such expressions. They would outrage common sense, and the fair and proper usage of language. But in Scripture nothing is more common than to find that very phrase, which is inapplicable to every relationship upon earth, constantly, and without the least explanation as if it were strange, applied to our relationship to Christ Jesus. It must mean, therefore, that there is something in a Christian's relationship to Christ, deeper, closer, more real, if I may use the expression, than in a pupil's relationship to his |