The Imperative Mood                                            Feb. 20, 2005

"He must increase, but I must decrease." We might say John the Baptist only had one mood…the "imperative mood." He was a "must" man. The greatest man ever born of a woman made one of the greatest utterances of mortal man. This "best man" wanted all to see his best Friend, the Bridegroom. To accomplish this, he turned his back on his own shadow to face the Son.

This text should be the motto of every child of God. I must grow smaller and smaller; He must grow larger and larger. I must decay to nothing; He must increase into everything. There must be less and less of me and more and more of Him. Hudson Taylor described himself as "the little servant of an illustrious Master."