idiosyncrasies that the world ever saw, and they would not understand
each other, as some of them wofully misunderstood each other when
here together. But there was one characteristic in them all, a
flaming earnestness of belief in the power of the Name. And so it did
not matter much, if at all, what their divergences were. Each of them
was fitted for the Master's use.

And so, brethren, here is the reason--I do not say the only reason,
but the main one, and that which most affects us--for the slow
progress, and even apparent failure, of Christianity. It has fallen
into the hands of a Church that does not half believe its own Gospel.
By reason of formality and ceremonial and sacerdotalism and a lazy
kind of expectation that, somehow or other, the benefits of Christ's
love can come to men apart from their own personal faith in Him, the
Church has largely ceased to anticipate that great things can be done
by its utterance of the Name. And if you have, I do not say
ministers, or teachers, or official proclaimers, or Sunday-school
teachers, or the like, but I say if you have a _Church_, that is
honeycombed with doubt, and from which the strength and flood-tide of
faith have in many cases ebbed away, why, it may go on uttering its
formal proclamations of the Name till the Day of Judgment, and all
that will come of it will be--'The man in whom the devils were,
leaped upon them, and overcame them, and said'--as he had a good
right to say--'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?' You
cannot kindle a fire with snowballs. If the town crier goes into a
quiet corner of the marketplace and rings his bell apologetically,
and gives out his message in a whisper, it is small wonder if nobody
listens. And that is the way in which too many so-called Christian
teachers and communities hold forth the Name, as if begging pardon of
the world for being so narrow and old-fashioned as to believe in it