Preaching and Practicing.

 
ONE was asked, “Whose preaching brought you to Christ?” The answer came, “It wasn’t anybody’s preaching; it was Aunt Mary’s practicing.”
We are told an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory. A poor Chinaman asked a missionary to baptize him. When asked where he had heard the Gospel, he answered “that he had never heard the Gospel, but had seen it.” He said he knew a poor man at Ningpo who had once been an inveterate opium smoker, and a man of violent temper. This man had become a Christian, and his whole life had altered. He gave up opium, and became loving and amiable. “So,” said the man, “I have not heard, but seen the Gospel.”
A piece of tin in a rubbish heap will catch and reflect the rays of the summer sun. Amid all its unsavoury surroundings it cannot be hid— so the lowliest Christian in a polluted world can shine for, and reflect the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be “living epistles known and read of all men.” We must “walk as children of light.” (Eph. 5:88For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (Ephesians 5:8)), and “shine as lights in the world.”