_THE DISCIPLESHIP THAT TELLS_
"_He that followeth Me._"
--JOHN viii. 12-20.
Yes, but I must make sure that I follow Him in Spirit and in truth. It is
so easy to be self-deceived. I may follow a pleasant emotion, while all
the time a bit of grim cross-bearing is being ignored. I may be satisfied
to be "out on the ocean sailing," singing of "a home beyond the tide,"
while all the time there is a piece of perilous salvage work to be done
beneath the waves. To "follow Jesus" is to face the hostility of scribes
and Pharisees, to offer restoring friendship to publicans and sinners, to
pray in blood-shedding in Gethsemane, to brave the derision of the brutal
mob, and to be "ready" for the appalling happenings on Calvary! Therefore,
following is not a light picnic; it is a possible martyrdom!
But if I set my face "to go," the Lord Himself will visit me with "_the
light of life_." And the resource shall not be broken and spasmodic: it
shall be mine without ceasing. "Be thou faithful ... and I will give
thee ... life." That life will flow into my soul, just as the oxygenating
air flows down to the diver who is faithfully busy recovering wreckage
from the wealth-strewn bed of the mighty sea. Let me be faithful, and
every moment the Lord will crown me with His own vitalizing life!