‘Now we believe; not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’ The best possible result of the testimony of the Christian witness is, that those who receive it should be brought into such an independent relationship with the Lord Himself that the witness who has brought them to it disappears before the fulness of His grace. And the very last thing that such a witness would ever desire is, that people should come to him as an intermediate mediator between them and their Saviour. The one object of his life and testimony is that all eyes, and all thoughts, and all hearts, should be directed exclusively to the Lord Jesus; and if that blessed end can be accomplished, the true witness is only too happy and thankful to be himself quite out of sight. II. But in order to this testimony there is power required. There are cases in which the testimony involves nothing short of martyrdom, as it did in the case of the first martyr, or witness, Stephen; as it did when the Huguenots were martyred for the faith on St. Bartholomew’s Day, three centuries ago; and as lately done in our mission stations in West Africa and in China. But in all cases the strongest amongst us must remember St. Paul’s words, descriptive of his ministry at Corinth: ‘I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling.’ We all want a power far beyond anything that we can discover in our own hearts. This, then, leads me to our second subject, the source of the power. One thing is perfectly plain, viz. that the power does not come from arbitrary assumption, and high sacerdotal claims to something amounting to superhuman authority; to such claims as those put forward when the Bishop’s authority is contrasted with that which is ‘merely human,’ and the Bishop’s voice is declared to be to the clergyman ‘the voice of God.’ Such assumptions being without the slightest shadow of scriptural authority are sure, in the long run, only to weaken power. Nor does the power here promised arise from even the legitimate exercise of well-established law. In the Church of England, I am thankful to say, we are both protected and restrained by law; and the Bishop in the Church of England is armed with certain legal powers, which are of the utmost possible importance to the discipline and well-being of our Body. The only people who complain of the power of law are those who wish to break it. But this is not the power described in the text. The power here promised is something which no law can either give or take away. It is the direct gift of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself; it is nothing less than the power of the Holy Ghost.