Years ago, long before I was a Christian, when my language was very bad, I could never bring myself to use the name of Christ as an oath. That is strange because it’s the most common swear-word in the whole of the western world. The name of Jesus Christ is spat out in a million arguments, and conversations every day.

Now I know there are worse things than swearing, and using the name of God in vain, but, have you noticed that where a man or woman becomes a real Christian the name of God becomes very precious to him? Even insensitive friends notice the change of vocabulary, or rather, the changed attitude of the speaker, when a man begins to reverence the person of our Lord.

This is what is meant in the Bible by ‘calling on the name of the Lord’. The name of the Lord is one of those words which act as a catalyst for so many discordant attitudes within us. Notice that in the Bible there are two attitudes, one which blasphemes the name of the Lord, and the other which blesses the name of the Lord. There is all the difference of two worlds between them.

If you love someone, then the mention of their name rings a bell with you, that’s how Christians feel about Jesus.

Today if you have a memory for hymns, try thinking through the hymn which begins –

‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer’s ear . . . ‘