Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
We must become confessors before we become proclaimers.
Thus did Jesus, thus His apostles, thus their converts, and thus
must we. Shall we involve ourselves in the inconsistency of
proclaiming to others what we have not ourselves embraced?
The object of the proclaimer is to gain confessors. Hence,
the enquiry now urged, Have you faith? If so, be entreated to
make confession. Are there not near you at least a few faithful
men, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience,
keeping the ordinances as delivered at the first? If so, your
duty is plain. Find up these Christians, and, having done so,
gladden their hearts by confessing their Lord to be now and
henceforth yours.—/. B. Rotherham.
180. "To be free from human tyranny, we must be the subjects
of divine authority. The good confession, as of old, stands
as the stalwart guardian at the door of the church."
181. We owe it to Christ thus to confess Him. ... In one of
his wars Cyrus took captive an Armenian princess. She was
condemned to death. Hearing of this, her husband came into
the camp of his conqueror and offered his life in her stead.
Cyrus was so touched with the devotion of the prince that he
resolved to pardon them both, and to restore them to their
dominion. Officers and soldiers stood there talking over the
magnanimity of their great leader. The princess was near by,
her eyes filled with tears. Some one turned to her with the
question, "What do you think of Cyrus?" "I was not thinking
of Cyrus," was her reply. "Of whom, then, were you thinking?"
And, looking up into the face of her husband, her eyes luminous
with love, she answered : "I was thinking of the one who would
willingly have died for me." Because of all He has done for
you, you ought to confess Christ. H. G. Harward.
182. A friend of mine, who used to live across the sea, told
me that his father lived on the estate of an English nobleman,
Queen of
a man of high standing, and a great friend of the late
England. This titled gentleman was not strong of constitution,
and, although the food upon his table would tempt a king, he
could not partake of it. But he would slip away to a little
house where dwelt an old woman, a saint of God, by the name
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