In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being a witness for Christ in the 20th century. He argues that it is not enough to simply support missionaries in distant lands, but rather, every believer has the responsibility to be a witness for Christ. The speaker refers to Acts chapter 17, where Paul and Silas are accused of turning the world upside down by preaching about Jesus. Despite facing opposition and persecution, they continued to proclaim the gospel and many believed. The speaker encourages the audience to follow their example and be bold witnesses for Christ, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit.

Will you turn please to Acts chapter 17, our theme this evening, Ours a Reasonable Faith. I read for you the first nine verses of the seventeenth chapter of the book of Acts. We've been in the book of Acts now for many months. We weren't really intending to bring a series of messages on the subject, but this is the Acts of the Holy Spirit, and I trust it has become for you, as it certainly is becoming for me, a book of experience, personal experience with the Lord, rather than just a history of what others experienced with him. Notice now how this should relate itself to your life. That's of course our concern, that you see that what the Spirit of God did, he's doing. This is a textbook, not a history book. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scripture, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received, and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the others, they let them go. I say a textbook. Because, you see, the world is still no friend of Christ nor friend of grace. And you are going to have to recognize that it's your responsibility in the twentieth century to be a witness for Christ. My brother Shoresky said that this is a missionary task in which we're all engaged. There is no such thing in God's view and I as home and foreign. This is purely artificial. A three-mile barrier may be important to us, but it's certainly not to the Lord. And he, I'm sure, views the world as the field. This is the manner in which he intends you to view the world. It's not enough for you to contribute to keep missionaries in some distant land. You're faced with the responsibility that he said, meant when he said, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, ye shall be witnesses unto me. Now we have in this Scripture what we can expect from a witnessing with the power of the Holy Spirit. First, let's notice the difficult part. It isn't fair just to talk about the blessing. Let's see some of the problems as we've been seeing in other portions. But notice especially what strange bedfellows are made when they unite together in opposing Christ. You remember, of course, that Herod was the arch enemy, political arch enemy of Pilate. They had no time for each other, no respect for each other, so tradition in history tells us. And they couldn't find any means of getting together until they began to unite in their opposition to Christ. And as soon as this took place, then they were prepared to depend upon each other and to make their common cause against Christ the grounds of their fellowship. So notice what we have here. The Jews, devout people, earnest people, Orthodox people, sincere people, but who would not hear that Jesus was the Christ, when they had decided they would not believe and thus counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, moved with envy, now formed a union that they wouldn't have thought of previously. They took unto them and I like this expression. It's found its way into literature repeatedly because it's so vivid. They took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. Now just what these were I don't know, but whatever they were, the Scripture is strong enough so that they're pretty well identified and writers through the years have thought the neat turn of phrase could be applied and occasionally you'll find it occurring in rather unexpected places. But this is what happened. Devout, earnest Jews have now found common cause with lewd fellows of the baser sort and have gathered together with them in their mutual opposition to Christ and to the one who was representing the Lord Jesus Christ in their community. Strange that this should happen, isn't it? And you can expect it's going to happen in your ministry as well. The intellectual is going to face the requirements of believing on Christ and when he decides, not for intellectual grounds as we're about to see, I trust, but for personal moral grounds, that he does not want to submit to the claims of Christ, he's prepared to make common cause with the rude and the brutal and the cruel and will join his hands with theirs in opposition to Christ and to the church. This is the way you can expect it to happen. This is the way it will happen if you are prepared to sow by many waters and witness in season and out of season and make your way for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the burden that's been pressed upon my heart in these months is this, that we must become, here in the heart of this city, a witnessing church. There's a sense in which you can, and I trust it hasn't happened, at least I trust it hasn't happened in any degree, but one can, in their concern for spiritual reality, become introspective. And to a degree all of us must be, because after all, we're dealing with our own hearts and only you know your heart. But after all, the great concern of God in your Christian life is not just that you be conformed to the image of Christ as some esoteric, some hidden, some mystical conformity that pleases him and you, but being conformed to the image of Christ means that you have the same relationship to Christ that he had to the Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ was available to the Father. He said, I always do those things that please the Father. The attitude of your heart as a sinner and mine was that we did always those things that pleased us. Now that the Lord Jesus Christ has worked in and upon our hearts, the difference is that the purpose is to please him. This is what it ought to be and what I expect you see it to be, that just as previously you used your lips to speak what you wished, whether it was mean and cantankerous and ornery and cutting and cruel, now these lips have been given to the Lord Jesus that he can use them to speak his, the word of redeeming love. And just as previously you used your feet to take you where you shouldn't have gone, to use your hands to do what you shouldn't have done, and your ears to hear what you shouldn't have heard. In other words, your body was the vehicle of your own will. Now that you've come to Christ in surrender and abandonment, there ought to be, there ought to be, I say, a complete and total abandonment of this vehicle to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you would be as available to him as he was to the Father. This was his prayer, Father, that I may dwell in them or live in them as thou hast lived in me, and they may live in me as I lived in you. This is the burden of his prayer. Not some spiritual, shall I say, mystical again, and I don't use the word in a derogatory sense, usually, I think I am now, mysterious or hidden or obtuse type of relationship that's just of spiritual significance apart from practical outworking. No, not so at all. The Lord Jesus Christ wants to live in you a very practical life. It's going to affect the way you do the dishes in the morning. Instead of just getting them done because you have to do the dishes, it's going to be that you do it for the glory of Christ. It's going to affect the way you do your work at the office. When you know him and are in the relationship he's designed for you, you're going to do that work, not simply because it has to be done to get your living at the end of the week, but that you might glorify him. It's a practical life. It affects every relationship and all responsibilities and all tasks, certainly this, but more than that, it's going to be in this particular thing that's of such importance to the Lord, your personality, your brain and your lips, all that you are, will be available to him for that task that was begun by him but is incomplete, namely of giving the good news to every creature. This is the intent. This is the import. This is the direction of everything we're concerned about. I put it again so that you won't make any mistake. Everything that I see in the Christian life is to this end of being to the Lord Jesus Christ the vehicle of witness, testimony and ministry and exhibit of his grace that he's intended you to be. Now if you see that, then you realize that we're not talking about something that's sort of feeling your own spiritual pulse to find out whether it's beating a full 76 a minute and then sitting there and sort of trying to wish it up or down as the case may require. It isn't that at all. It's to be in such a relationship with him that the full throb and flow of his life makes you unselfconscious and you're out in your task, in your work, in your responsibility, free and at liberty and released to simply be a happy, wholesome, normal individual that has something to do joyfully and to say triumphantly, that you have become a witness in every full sense of the word. If you see this and understand this, then you will realize that the growth of any work and the growth of any ministry and the growth of any activity depends entirely upon you and the relationship with the Lord that he's designed and intended and planned and prepared for you. And so I want you to see that. Now this is what's happened to Paul. Paul is probably the most normal, the most relaxed and released and free, wholesome individual you've ever met. He's quite content when he's at Corinth, as we saw a while ago, to return to his trade, joyfully so intense so that he will not be chargeable to the people and dependent upon them for charity, since they have not yet learned the ministry of stewardship. And he's gladly doing it without any complaint, witnessing three Sabbath days going in talking about the Lord to the Jews, quite prepared to just walk and live and move in this world as a free person, free to work, free to walk, free to talk, free to reason, free to discuss, free to affirm. He's what God wants you to be. Are you that kind of a person or are you somehow turned in on yourself? Are you somehow finding it very difficult to speak with people about the Lord? Are you finding it very difficult to be relaxed and to be natural in your conversations with others about Christ? I believe that the relationship with the Spirit of God that he wants for you and relationship to the truth that he has for you is one where the Christian life is going to become a life of not ease, of course you know being stoned isn't particularly easy, being put in prison as we saw this morning isn't particularly easy, but in the midst of it to find rest, in the midst of it to find that one isn't under tension and under strain of an unusual or difficult sort. There may be certain kinds of tension, I promise you that, but not an inner tension that's turning and twisting you within. You're released as a free person to speak of Christ, to do your work, to walk happily through the world where he's put you, adjusting to it as you go and finding that by keeping your eye on him you can follow a straight path right through whatever place he takes you. Now we are accused as Christians of being very gray and very drab people. We're told by the world around us that there's something seemingly so drab, so gray, so colorless about Christians. Apparently since they say, well, they don't do so many things, then the question is asked, well, what do you do? Well, I wouldn't be surprised, but this is a charge that we deserve to have leveled at us. I think perhaps so. You know, the Apostle Paul, whatever you might have said about him, was never going to accept the accusation of being a gray, a drab, a dull person. Say, to travel with him was an excitement, wasn't it? When you went into town you didn't say, which is the best hotel? I want the comfortable accommodations. Which is the best jail? I'll be there before the week's out. Because there would either be a revival or a riot, and often there'd be both. Here was a person that was living on the very threshold of a tremendous adventure, constantly, because he was serving a living Christ. Now I want to say that because what I propose to say in the next few moments has to do with another aspect of it. Here is this vivid man, this vital man, this man that's so terribly alive and loves life so much, at almost any point along the way he could have let go of the bar he was clinging to in the ocean or to the bar he was clinging to in the cell and just slipped out of time into the presence of the Lord. But he loved life and the privilege of serving Christ so deeply that he was willing to endure and to endure as few of us would have certainly. The Lord had to have the man to trust him with what came to Paul. So when I propose to show you the next thing, then you will not let them be confused. The two can go together in your personality, in your life, as well as in his. Here was a man who not only lived in a vital, warm relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, always on the very threshold of miracle, the adventure of the unusual, witnessing where there was such effect to what he said as to cause the public riots that we find. But here was a man that could sit down and quietly discuss with others the claims of Christ. Now, I think it would be extremely difficult for you to set out tonight to start a riot over Christ in New York City. I just don't think that you can break through the hypnotic hole that television has on the people to get them excited enough about anything to riot. I don't think so. I don't think that even Paul could do it. But in New York. But I am convinced that there are people that would like to talk with you about the Lord. Did you know that? I am confident that there are people that would like to talk with you about the Lord. Now, I find with most Christian people two attitudes. One of, well, I can't talk. I can't say anything. I'm not a soul winner. Do you know what they have reference to? They have reference to the high-pressure type of spiritual salesmanship, or can I use the word because I want to press this to you, of huckstering Jesus that's sometimes associated with personal work. Where you come into a person and you browbeat them into signing a card or saying yes. And they say, well, I can't browbeat people into a profession of faith in Christ. Well, good. Neither can I, and I don't believe that's what God's called you to, and I don't think that's what witnessing means, and I don't think that's what personal work means, and I don't think that's what soul winning means. Because I am convinced that if you do that, that you're simply going to have had a termination to your conversation, and they've said yes to your high-pressure tactics to get out from your clutches. As the elevator operator in Pittsburgh said, I've had to accept Jesus three times this week because of these people you've got here in town. That's the only way I can get them to leave me alone. High-pressure, high-pressure salesmanship, huckstering of Jesus. Now, when I talk of witnessing, that's not what I mean at all. I'm not talking about getting a decision. I am talking about the very thing that's here. Three Sabbath days he reasoned with them out of the Scripture. And if you will allay people's suspicions and fears that you're trying to press them into your church, or force them into your mold, or drive them into your group, and will simply talk with them, you will find that there are a great many people interested in conversing with you about the things of God. The question is, can you reason with people? When they start to attack the Bible and attack the faith and attack your Lord, do you bristle up like a porcupine being threatened by a puppy and put every quill out and prepare to leave them in anyone that touches you? Is this what happens? Or are you prepared to let someone say, you know, I don't believe the Bible is the Word of God. And you look at them and say, oh, you don't. And I don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And you say, you don't. And I don't believe in your church or your religion. You don't. But there's something that I'd like to talk to you about. Now they've said all of that, you see. And they expect you're going to defend yourself and argue. And after all, they haven't proved, they haven't even tried to prove it. All they've said is they don't believe it, and that's their right and privilege. But they're talking to you. And if you try to prove to them at that point that the Bible is the Word of God, if you try to prove to them that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, all you've done is getting into a grand old hassle and a grand old argument. And you've done nothing. And but after they've made their affirmation of unbelief, you can turn around and say, but you know, there was a time when I felt exactly the same way about it you do. Or I know someone, if you didn't, that felt exactly the same way about it you do. And it's strange, you know, how with people that feel as strongly about it as you do, when they consider what is actually taught in the Bible, how that their attitudes will change. For instance, so-and-so. Well, in this case, you know, Robert Ingersoll had a friend who was an atheist that had believed everything he said. And so he said to his friend Lou, why don't you write a book and knock this Christian myth into a cocktail and expose it for what it is? And so the writer said, I'll do it. He did the basic research. And when he actually examined the evidence and saw what was there and the testimony that was given and what was affirmed, do you know what Robert Ingersoll's friend did? Know what? He wrote a book. Do you know what book it was? Know what? It was Ben-Hur, the greatest fictional affirmation of the faith truth of Christ that's ever been written. And he had to break with Bob Ingersoll, and he wrote to him and said, and upon examining the evidence and the credentials and the testimony, I find that as an honest man I must conclude that the Bible is the word of God and Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He did. You've opened the way, simply because you feel that your faith is sufficiently strong that it can stand a denial and not be destroyed by it. And you don't have to defend it. And so as Paul is with these people, he's giving to you a pattern for your own witness. You don't have to defend the inspiration of the Bible. You can't prove that the Bible is inspired to a mind that isn't willing to accept it. Do you know that? You can't prove to anybody that isn't willing to accept the evidence that the Bible is inspired. I know it is, and I believe wholeheartedly with everything in me it's verbally inspired. I believe in the plenary inspiration of the Bible. But if you don't and you won't accept the evidence that satisfies me, I can't prove it to you. It's proven to me and it satisfies me, but the evidence isn't so much whether it is inspired and I am testing its validity. The question is what does it say about you? Is it true what the Bible has to say about you? And so this becomes then another means that you can turn the person's denial of the inspiration of the Scripture. Ours is a reasonable faith. God doesn't ask you to prove the inspiration of the Bible before you use it. You know, you don't have to prove that a lion's claws are sharp before it'll cut. Just turn him loose. He'll take care of himself. This is what Spurgeon said when he was asked to prove the inspiration of the Bible. He said the Bible doesn't need any defense. It's a lion. Turn it loose. It'll take care of itself. And you don't need to prove the inspiration. Just use it. Use it. That razor isn't sharp, someone said. And so it was swung. He said, well, you just turn your head and see how sharp it is. And there was a, it had cut so quick he couldn't feel it. And so oftentimes the Bible will cut so quick that people don't feel it. Just, and first thing you know, a person goes home and they've been all cut to pieces. You don't need to prove the inspiration of the Bible. Just use it. It is inspired. God knows it's inspired. You use it. Let God prove it. Don't try to argue about it because you can't prove it. You can't even prove the existence of God. Did you know that? Ours is a reasonable faith, but you can't prove the existence of God from any law. Or you can use the ontological means, testimony. You can use the cosmological arguments. You can go ahead and develop it. But after all, who's the jury? Who's the judge in this matter? It's the individual you're talking to. And if he says that doesn't prove it to me, where have you gone? What have you done? It doesn't prove it to you? No. Well, it proved it to me. Well, it doesn't prove it to me, says the man with whom you're discussing. And so he is the judge and he's the jury and he's pronounced on the evidence and he says it isn't enough. And you haven't proved it as far as he's concerned. So what use is there trying to prove the inspiration of the Bible before you witness to anybody? If you believe it's inspired, use it. Let God demonstrate it. Why prove the existence of God rationally? This isn't a witness. This isn't necessary for your testimony. You don't have to go and use the elaborate argumentation. Why? Because everybody to whom you speak knows there's a God. God gave the witness in their heart. And the fool has said in his heart there's no God. Proceed on what the Bible says and tell them about God and they'll be at all interested all of a sudden. But if you try to prove he exists, then you are not sufficiently sure yourself and you're sort of whistling in order to try and satisfy your own harm. So I'm trying to lay in your mind the necessity of becoming involved. Someone comes to me and says, well, you can't prove as a Christian that man didn't come by a process of evolution. And I have to argue and say, well, that's right, I can. But the evolutionist can't prove that that's the way he came either. And so as far as I'm concerned, we'll just start out with in the beginning God and God created man in his image and likeness. And you come up with proof to the contrary, we'll discuss it. But right now it's your thesis against my thesis, and I prefer my thesis because this is here and yours is... See, you get all excited trying to disprove the arguments of science. Science doesn't have any arguments, has a few facts. But as soon as a scientist tries to interpret his facts, he's a metaphysician, he isn't a scientist any longer. He's a scientist as long as he classifies, verifies, and proves. But as soon as he becomes an interpreter, then he's a metaphysician, he's a religionist. So don't let that trouble you. Let's get on with the job, shall we? Let's not get waylaid into trying to prove in the inspiration of the Bible and the existence of God and disprove evolution before we come to the fact that what we're actually set to do is to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead. This is our responsibility. Let's keep right here at the main point and not be carried away. Now how are you going to demonstrate it? Well, of course, you have the Scriptures that affirms it. But then you come back to the fact that final analysis, what did Jesus Christ, this living Christ of whom you speak, do for you? And what has he done for others? I was talking with Bob Walker, editor of Christian Life magazine, in the office at dinner a few with an editor, writer, here in New York, that said, Now, I'm interested in the subject, but I want you to know right now I'm an atheist, and I don't believe in God. And Bob says, Well, I've met lots of people. In fact, when I was a student at Evanston, at Northwestern, why, I thought I was the same. But you know, I met Jesus Christ, and he did this and this for me, and I met Jesus Christ, and he did this and this, and the Holy Spirit says, and the man says, Tell me more. Tell me more. Well, I thought you were going to try to argue with me, but you mean to say God did this? You mean to say this happened? He said, Well, next time you're in New York, would you meet together, and I'll clear my schedule, and we'll take all four noon. Why don't people talk like this? They're always trying to argue and prove something. He said, You mean to say that God has done this in your life, and God has done this in your life? Yes. He said, Now, when you come back to the city, you let me know. I'll take the whole morning just to talk with you. And this is exactly what Paul was doing. This is the affirmation that he gave. Oh, he could have used all the logic and forensic skill that he'd acquired as a Pharisee trying to prove that seventeen angels could stand on the head of a pin. He knew how. He was a lawyer of Pharisee. He knew all about it. He isn't doing that. He's opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed. And this is your task and mine. Not to argue. Not to debate. Not to prove. We can't. But to affirm. To open. To allege. To demonstrate. And to allow God the holy cause. You see, the ones who believed knew that Jesus was alive from the dead. And the other ones, Paul could have spent all week with them, a month or six months, and they'd have still consorted with a baser sort because they would not have this man to rule over them. So there's no use. What you've got to just argue and debate and try and prove. That's not what we're called to do. Ours is a reasonable faith. What is it? It's an affirmation that this is what God's word says. This is what Jesus Christ did. And there will be those to whom this affirmation will bear fruit and have response. And to them will come the proof incontestable and surmountable that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead. May God help us, help you, this week, not to try and prove. You can't. Just affirm. And let God prove. You'll be amazed what he does. Shall we bow our hearts in prayer? Think for a moment. When was the last time that you spoke to someone that you knew was unsaved? You've had a lot of truths. You're interested in missions. You're concerned about God's will for your life. God's met you in some ways and meeting you in others. When was the last time you met someone? What did you do when you met them? Did you try to prove the Bible was inspired? You know, if you did, it didn't get very far. You missed the point. Did you try to prove that God exists or that Jesus Christ is virgin-born or God come in the flesh? Did you try to prove or disprove? If so, you missed the point. You know what he's asking you to do? He's asking you to reason with those to whom you speak how that Christ must needs have suffered. It's the only way sin could be atoned. And be buried and be raised again from the dead and that he is alive. And as you declare this and affirm what he's done for you and testify to what you know he's done in the lives of others, the Spirit of God will use that affirmation and will stir hearts and there will be some who will believe. How long has it been since you cared enough to go out of your way to invite someone to your home and have lunch with them or dinner with them, or somehow take time to answer their questions, earn the right to speak, listen, and then just affirm what the Lord has done? Oh Father of Jesus, look down upon us. Here we are, a company of people going out into this great needy mission field. Every one of us ought to be witnesses for the Lord Jesus. Every one of us ought to have at least one opportunity to speak to someone in the 168 hours of this week until this time next Sunday night. And during these 168 hours, every one of us ought to have been able to engage someone in intelligent conversation and had them listen. And we ought to be able to bring someone from time to time to the house of the Lord that's opened their heart and believed. We believe, Father, it's thy plan for every Christian to be a witness. And through these that are seated here tonight, thou wouldst bring others to Christ. This is how thou wilt do the work of the ministry, through the members of the body. This is how there will be a building up of the body of Christ, edifying brick upon brick and stone upon stone, through these that are here. Everything thou hast given to any, thou hast given to them. Thou hast given the Word, thou hast given an experience of thy grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. Grant, Heavenly Father, that as these people leave and go out into the cold, blustery, windy night, they'll go realizing that there's someone. Oh, not just someone that's drunk or someone that panhandles, but somebody that has all of their wits and their intelligence and has questions and arguments to talk with them and share with them and witness to them of the Lord Jesus Christ. Might it be when the next we gather on the Lord's Day that everyone that's here has had a friendly, open, free, happy time of discussing with someone who doesn't know the Lord Jesus, the claims of Christ, and affirmed the grace and power of Christ? Make us witnesses, Father. Save us from the bondage of thinking we have to win souls. Help us to realize that as we witness the Spirit of God works and that salvation is of thee, but we're laborers together with thee. And grant, Father, that in the hours of this week there shall come a new experience to many. For as they will find opposition on the part of some, there will be these hearts whom thou hast prepared who will listen and be grateful and will be concerned. Now, Father, we believe thou dost want a church here of witnessing men and women and young people. We're believing thee for this and trusting thee for this and asking that the ministry of this evening will contribute to it. And when our brother Jeffreys told us that he was instrumental in starting seven churches in six months in one area, our hearts just break within us because we realize that people are no easier to talk to in Vietnam than they are here and that we ought to be the instruments of bringing men and women to Christ. There's some people, Lord, that have been coming here for 30 years and have never brought anyone in who through their testimony had come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, give us great concern. Give us calvary hearts. Grant, Father, that thy Spirit shall find us and make us a witness in church. To that end, seal this testimony that we've heard tonight from the Apostle and grant that we shall not be detoured into the morass of argument, but we shall keep, listen, and then affirm that thou canst attest and prove and confirm. We give thee thanks for turning our hearts in this direction. Now, Lord, there be anyone here without Christ, might this be the night that that heart opens the door and invites the Lord Jesus in. Grant that there should be no one leave with unconfessed, unforgiven sin, but there might be brokenness of heart and cleansed minds and spirits to go into the new week prepared to be what thou dost want us to be as witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. With their heads bowed and eyes closed, you know how seldom I ever ask you for a vow. And because I don't believe in vows, I shan't ask you for one tonight. But I want to put it this way. Will you endeavor by God's help and grace to talk with someone about the Lord Jesus in the next six or seven days? Ask him to lead you. It'll be natural, it'll be normal, it won't be strange. I'm not asking you to promise, I'm asking you to endeavor by his grace, to give you the experience of discussing with someone the claims of Christ. Now let us stand for the benediction. It's reasonable to believe, our Father, that if we affirm that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead, thou wilt confirm it. We are asking, therefore, that thou wilt teach us just what thou dost want from us, and make us to be the kind of witnesses thou dost desire. Let every heart that's responded to have that additional strength and enabling and liberty that comes from thee. And grant, Lord, that next Lord's day there shall be a real rejoicing on the hearts of many, because they've made special purpose to talk with someone about the claims of Christ in the seven days of the week to come. Prompt any who have need to stay, bless the young people as they meet in college and career hour immediately following. Grant, our Father, that the memories of this evening shall be precious, because we've heard these speak to our hearts. For Jesus' sake, amen.