March 12

Christ’s letter to the world

“Ye are our epistle . . . known and read of all men” (2 Cor. 3:2).
“Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ” (2 Cor. 3:3).

The great object for which Jesus Christ came into this world, and for which His Gospel is preached, is to form godly character. Christlieb was right when he said that the “living Christian is the world’s Bible,” and there are millions in our land who seldom look at any other. We whose business it is to preach Christianity, must also remember that people look at us when outside of our pulpits to discover exactly what we mean when we are in our pulpits. If our conduct before the community contradicts the utterances on God’s day in God’s house, then the most eloquent tongue becomes a tinkling cymbal.


A certain parishioner once remarked, “My pastor’s discourses are not brilliant, but his daily life is a sermon all the week.” Paul stood behind all his inspired writings; the “living epistle” moves us as deeply as any words he ever sent to Rome or to Corinth.
—Theodore Cuyler.

I am my neighbor’s Bible;
He reads me when we meet;
Today he reads me in my home;
Tomorrow in the street.
He may be relative or friend,
Or slight acquaintance be;
He may not even know my name;
Yet he is reading me.

Dear Christian friends and brothers,
If you could only know
How faithfully the world records just
What we say and do,
Oh, we would make our record plain,
And labor hard to see
Our worldly neighbors won to Christ,
While reading you and me.

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