The Gospel Preached to the Poor
Said Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." Luke 4:18. Here is a direct statement and proof. No one should fail to see the force of the word "because." The fact that Jesus was commissioned to preach the gospel to the poor, was an evidence that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. To the same effect, when John sent, inquiring, "Art thou he that should come?" he gave as one evidence of his divinity the fact that, "the poor have the gospel preached to them." While this is not the sole evidence, it is an important one; and while many teachers of false religion may pay great attention to the poor, it may be accepted as a settled fact that any religious teacher, even though his theory be true, who does not teach in such a way that the poor and unlearned can understand and be profited thereby, is not called of God to teach. The Bible contains "the deep things of God," but these must be unfolded to the comprehension of the simplest minds. Christ commissions his teachers to feed his sheep; and sheep, as well as lambs, must be fed from a low rack.