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THE DIFFERENCE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 5, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 53, No. 23.

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THE DIFFERENCE.

By L. F. Davis

WHEN the Pharisees saw that the Saviour sat at meat with publicans and sinners, they said to his disciples, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” When Jesus heard this question he replied, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”
Was the Saviour guided by the example of the wealthy and wise? Did he select a certain number from the aristocracy and say, Because these pass the poor, the vile, and the sick by on the other side, so must I, else I shall not gain favor among them? On the contrary, his words were, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Let us take his example into our midst at the present day, and contrast it with our course as professed followers of him. Shall we, like the wealthy Mrs. B. and Mrs. H. refuse to call upon Mrs. D.? Shall we shun her because in her youth she was led into sin? Shall we pass her coolly by as if from fear of contamination? Would it not be better to say, as did the Saviour when the adulterous woman was brought to him, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
“And while the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return.”
Christ left his seat in glory, and came to this sinful world to seek and save even the chief of sinners.
“Since ‘who-so-will’ is bid to come, Shall we not say, there yet is room?”
“Let our own altar furnish coals, To kindle light in other souls; And from our lamp a light be given, To help them find the way to Heaven.” L. F. DAVIS.