It is evident that discipleship is something more than believing unto

salvation, an element of endurance and continuance being implied in the

'Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in

My word, then are ye My disciples indeed' (John 8:31).

A continuation of the quotation from Matthew 16 given above would have

brought us to the subject of reward, this also being associated in several

passages with continuance and endurance.

Two more features characteristic of discipleship are given by the Lord:

'By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love

one to another' (John 13:35).

This administers a wholesome corrective to a false deduction from the Lord's

earlier words.  While a true disciple cannot avoid being called the same hard

names as his Master was called, the fact that the world hated a man and

called him a devil would not necessarily constitute such a disciple of

Christ.  Hatred outside must be accompanied by love within; we have then the

two sides of the question, and should be safe.

Finally, discipleship is not an empty profession:

'Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be

My disciples' (John 15:8).

Discipleship, therefore, covers practically the whole of Christian service

from the God -ward aspect; while the conception of service in terms of a

'debtor' covers a great deal of service as seen from the man-ward point of

The reader who has followed these studies will by now have realized

that we are lifting out from the Word a number of symbols of service, and

presenting them alphabetically.  We have considered up to the present, the

following symbols of service:

Ambassadors, Apostles and Angels.

Bondservants, Builders and Burden -bearers.

Calling, Cleansing and Committing.

Debtors and Disciples.

We do not suggest that every letter of the alphabet will prove of service,

but as far as is possible we hope to pursue this course, so that we may in

more senses than one learn the 'ABC' of service.  Should any reader feel that

this method savours of levity or is fitted only for children, we would point

to the inspired alphabetical Psalms and other passages of an acrostic nature

in the Word (e.g. Psa. 119).  Our memories are not so good but they will be

all the better for a little help, and an alphabetical arrangement is an aid

to memory.

The two symbols of service that are before us are the ear and the eye

as used in Scripture with reference to service.