_THE BRACING AIR OF PUBLICITY_
ROMANS x. 1-13.
There is a belief which never registers itself in confession. It never
exercises itself in the strong, bracing air of publicity. It is a
cloistered belief, and suffers from want of ventilation. Such Christians
are always anæmic; indeed, they are always puny, and never get beyond the
stage of spiritual babyhood. "Ye are yet babes!" Belief which is never
oxygenated by open confession can never nourish the soul into vigorous and
exhilarant health.
But there is a belief which expresses and confirms itself in confession.
"_With the mouth confession is made unto salvation._" Such confession is a
means of moral and spiritual health. And confession in the early days
meant risk, venture which exposed the life to the shedding of blood. It
meant a frank defiance of the world, and an eager challenge of the devil.
And it is on such fields of open encounter for the Lord that muscle is
made, and the soul goes "from strength to strength," and "from glory to
glory."
My soul, art thou secretly ashamed of thy Lord? Art thou afraid to "lift
high His royal banner"? Then thou wilt always be as a feather-bed soldier,
and the trophies of the honourable war are not for thee. Stand out in the
open, and boldly testify, "As for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord!"