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For your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one. — Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (Oct. 14th)
“Cordon bleu” — “of the highest class.” While the world encourages us by one sort of standard, Christians have a different sort of standard to which we ought to aspire. So says Ethelbert Dudley Warfield in his devotional work, At the Evening Hour: Simple Talks on Spiritual Subjects (1898), in a chapter titled The Christian’s “Cordon Bleu.”
There is a striking scene in Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" where the young captive chieftain, Uncas, is about to be taken to torture by his own kinsmen, the Delawares. He is taken from the prison tent and led to the stake, and there, his clothing being stripped off him, his fellow-tribesmen find upon his breast the totem of the royal house of their people, and at once recognize in him, instead of an enemy, a rightful ruler, and promptly yield to him the recognition which belonged to his birth.
So may it be with those who belong to the royal household of faith that when their own righteousness, which the prophet says is but filthy rags, is stripped away from them, their real character may be found stamped upon their lives — the simple yet sublime evidence of Christian faith. Then it will be that men will take knowledge of them, that they have been with Jesus. Then it will be that they will receive the promised reward of those who have been faithful over a few things.
Have we a proper realization of how important it is, we being Christians, that men shall take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus ? Such witness-bearing is not merely an inevitable result of such companionship, but a precious privilege as well. It is not necessary to hang upon our breasts a service medal such as the soldiers of imperial France so proudly wore, such as you will find upon the breast of every battle-scarred veteran in Europe to-day, telling how he fought at Sedan or Gravelotte, how he rode with Scarlett and his gallant six hundred in the Crimea, or faced the fearful Arab charge at Tel-el-Kebir. But it is necessary that by loyalty to truth, constancy in temptation, and gentleness of life we shall let all men see and know that we have been with Jesus, and from him have learned the secret of a godly life.
Let no man rob you of your right. It is the most glorious and most honorable distinction that can be awarded by man: that men shall take knowledge of you, that you have been with Jesus.
Words to consider as we live out our Christian walk day by day in reliance upon the Holy Spirit. May it be said of us that we have been with Jesus.
