p. 5 | Let Christ Draw

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 11.

Let Christ Draw.

The language of love is the language of persuasion. Christ’s minister is not divided, a minister of the Gospel and a minister of politics or law. He is to know only Christ and him crucified. And if he is a true minister of Christ, as he sees the certain doom which awaits the impenitent in consequence of sin, he will say, with Paul, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” 2 Cor. 5: 11. The language of the Gospel, of the ambassador of Christ, is “entreat,” “beseech,” “pray,” and the constraining power is the love of Christ. See 2 Cor. 5: 20, 14; 6: 1; Rom. 12: 1. But Sunday laws and all other religious measures are against all these principles, against this spirit, against the whole genius of Christianity. Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” His power to draw is as great now as it was 1,800 years ago if his professed servants will but lift him up. Let Christ be seen in his greatness and glory, in his purity and loveliness, as he was before the world was. Let him be seen in his humiliation, his labor, his suffering, his death, the climax of the evidence of his love. Let him be seen as the great High Priest, still divine and human, the One able to help the lowest sinner out of the lowest slums of iniquity to a life of purity in Christ Jesus. Lift him up in all his fullness, in his glory and beauty and love. Labor in his Spirit, as he labored, and Christ in his love will draw the multitude. There need be no demand for civil law to protect what is Christ’s. He can not be destroyed, nor can his; and therefore if a so-called Christian or church institution can not stand in its own intrinsic merit, by the spiritual power of Christ behind it, it deserves to die. This is not politics, but it is Christianity.