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place of testimony. That is a long word, but ‘testimony’ means
what we are and what we show in the world outside. Here in
this cold world we are to show that we belong to Christ. He
was a Stranger here, and we cannot be friendly with a world
that cast Him out. We need to ask the Holy Spirit for courage
to be true to Him.
I am sure you would like to hear what Mr. Taylor said a good
many years ago to a boy of nine years old who asked to break
bread. In those days the very young ones did not ask for
fellowship as so many are doing today. Mr. Taylor said
something like this—‘I hear, William, that you have asked to
remember the Lord. I do not say that you should not ask, but I
do say that if you break bread when you are nine you should
behave like a boy of twelve, and when you are twelve you
should act like a lad of sixteen, and when you are sixteen you
should behave like a young man of twenty’. That boy took Mr.
Taylor’s words to heart. He is grown up and married now and
has children of his own, but the Lord has kept him true to the
partnership all the way through, as I long that He may keep
each one of you.
It will not be easy. There will be reproach and you will be
laughed at for being ‘different’; even some of the young people
in the meeting who have not much love for Christ will laugh at
you, and that will be hardest of all. When they want you to cut
your hair shorter, or whisper in the meetings, it is harder to say
‘No’, but the Lord will be with you. He suffered for you far, far
more than you can ever suffer for Him, and He says that if you
confess Him and are true to Him before men, He will confess
you (think of the glory of it!) before the angels of God (Luke 12:
9).
One of my little grandchildren of seven years old said a very
wise thing to me one day. She was finding it a little hard not to
be doing the things that the children around were doing, but
she said, ‘It will be all right to be worldly when we get to
heaven, won’t it, because it will be our world!’ We want to learn