p. 4 | The Way of Love by C. L. Taylor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 13, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 24.

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The Way of Love

By C. L. Taylor

Soul Winning as Jesus Knew It

By C. L. TAYLOR

"BEHOLD how He loved him!" These are the words of testimony borne by the poor, blinded, hardened multitude that surrounded the grave of Lazarus.

The age in which Jesus lived among men was an age of terrible hardness of heart. Religion — whatever of it may have survived the infidelity of the times — taught its devotees to lay aside as puerile and mean all thoughts of sympathy and affection, and to behold with callous indifference the sorrows and troubles of mankind.

The Callous Indifference of Stoicism

STOICISM was one of the most popular beliefs. But no one could know the merits of that system of philosophy who did not sternly repress all emotions of tenderness, and steel himself against the inroads of loving interest and sweet solicitude.

Farrar has truly said that it was an age of atheism and superstition, of boundless luxury, of deep sadness, of awful cruelty. Godlessness and "lust hard by hate" had found a large place in both heart and home and sanctuary; and thus it came to pass that the suicide's grave was the one supposedly sweet place of refuge to which weary souls might flee and hide. "Men ran to death because their mode of life had left them no other refuge."

Into a Seething Pit of Iniquity

INTO this seething pit of world iniquity and sin hardness came the Son of God. "The fullness of the time" beckoned Him away from the magnificent glory of the eternal purities of heaven. Himself God, and surrounded by the myriads of bright beings whose supreme joy it was to render Him adoration, yet, beholding a world of sin and suffering, He "counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men." Love for sinners forced Him from the throne of infinite rule, and made Him the servant of the lowest peons of earth.

"God is love." LOVE! Mark the word. Not mere human affection, subject to change, a matter of reciprocity, and ofttimes modified and sometimes annulled by conditions, but the divine principle which eternally works for the good of all who live.

"Love never faileth." God love finds its largest and most welcome fields of operation, and its most splendid opportunities for active service, in the places where sin and darkness and ruin and desolation and death have made their presence felt. God love reaches out with greatest longing and most earnest heart hunger toward the unlovely, the forsaken, the hopeless of earth.

Sometimes we see just a faint glimmer of the heavenly light in the experience of devoted mothers, whose affections seem to entwine themselves most strongly around the wandering boys. Beautiful as are all the others of the family, the one who has gone astray commands mother's time and thought and prayer and care. Thank God for this little glimmer!

Found His Life Work Among the Lowly

AND this was the blessed plant of heaven which Jesus brought with Him from the glory world and caused to take root and bud and blossom and bear fruit in humanity — first in His own dear self, then in all who should truly believe in Him.

So Jesus, "the kindness of God," appeared among men. And true to His matchless soul of love, He found His life work among the lowly ones of earth. He was the Friend of publicans and sinners. And we all well know how utterly incomprehensible to the devout people of the church of that day was the course He took. And the leaders sought to destroy Him because He walked and worked and healed among the sin-sick.

But He could do naught else. He found His heart overcome with the sense of the awful need of the fallen. His whole being was stirred with pity. Irresistible longings seized Him, and moved Him toward the objects of His hungerings. He could no more have refused to go to the side of the fallen Mary Magdalene, than He could have resisted communion with the Father.

Encircles Both Throne and Sinner

LOVE — "the love of Christ" — has but one mighty and eternal impulse, and that is, to draw created intelligences to God. And when it beholds one going or gone astray, it seeks, by the arm of omnipotent faith, to grasp that one, and lift him up to his Creator. With one arm it grasps the throne of the Infinite, and with the other encircles the sinner, and thus God and His wanderers are brought together.

And the wonderful love of the Saviour was so subtle! Imperceptibly as the sunlight works upon the hidden seed, causing it to germinate and spring forth, so the love of the Lord Jesus operated upon the latent affections of men, and constrained them to develop. Whenever He came in contact with men, a mysterious something emanated from Him and permeated their hearts. The voice of a gentle stillness spoke to their inmost souls, and created within them strange hungerings and thirstings for things that were better.

Accompanied by Tremendous Energy

RELIGIOUS teachers had been before them constantly, but only dull monotony attended their effort, and men slept on in their sins and self-satisfaction. But when Jesus appeared, and quietly and humbly announced the principles of the kingdom of God, a tremendous energy accompanied all His words, and the multitude was enraptured. "Never man spake like this Man." Fathers, mothers, children — all — hung on His words. How good, how beautiful, how gentle, how helpful was everything He said!

The "Friend of sinners" was the Friend of mothers and children. The tired and tried mothers sought His side, knowing that He could and would impart to them comfort and strength. They found in His presence unspeakable pleasure. They felt safe in the refuge of His purity. They unburdened to Him the troubles of their aching hearts, and went away joyous and free. So big was He with sympathy and tenderness that "mothers in Israel" found in Him an unlimited store of healing balm, and carried with them to their homes the spirit of rejoicing.

And the children! Oh, they came without fear and without number. The discerning eye of innocent childhood discovered in the Man of Nazareth the spirit of holy harmlessness, and so the little ones thronged Him. They climbed upon His knees, they stole into His arms, they rested in His bosom. And all this could be true because Jesus truly loved children. Mother love, infinitely multiplied, and divinely purified and strengthened, flowed from His heart, and watered the most tender plants of God's human garden, and made them grow and flourish.

Emptiness of Formalism

AND even among the truth-hardened church teachers of the day were found those whose lives were modified and subdued by mere contact with the princely humility and sincerity and gentleness of the despised Galilean. From the time that they first beheld Him as a child of twelve years until He died on the cross, the pulsings of His divine nature were felt by the men who had ever known in their work nothing but the dead emptiness of cold church formalism.

An unseen Agent bore home to their consciences the knowledge that Jesus was the Son of God, a messenger of life and salvation. Every one was charmed and blessed. Well had it been if all had yielded their pride, and had made surrender to the One who made appeal to their souls. But the majority resisted, because they feared men more than God. John 12: 42, 43. But some could not always refuse the message which love bore, and in later days were "constrained" to give their hearts into His hands. Acts 6: 7.

Behold how Jesus loved men. Behold how He loved the Judas, the Thomas, the Peter, the

Simon. Behold, indeed, His heart sympathy for the dishonest, the unbelieving, the rash, the licentious. Behold His love for the proud, the stubborn, the slow, the low. Behold, also, the results of His love. His love made men live. He loved them away from sin to righteousness, from death to life. The shafts of His unconquerable love found the vulnerable places in sin-barricaded hearts, and obliged them to give up their warfare.

Divinity Revealed Through Humanity

PLAINLY, it was not so much what Jesus said, nor yet what He did, that decided men to become His followers. What He was won them to Him. The beauty of the Lord shone from within His soul. Divinity was constantly revealing itself through His humanity. Demonstration went hand in hand with humble profession. Words and works were but wires over which invisible Spirit power was transmitted to mankind.

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." Jesus so loved that He "gave Himself." This is the secret of His glorious soul winning. He gave all He had, and this made Him be all He was. And could any one be with Him and not be obliged to recognize the fact? And recognition of the fact that He was a true and unchangeable Friend also obliged them to reciprocate His love and identify themselves with Him.

A Miracle of the Holy Spirit

JESUS on earth was a miracle of the Holy Spirit, the mystery of God's grace. He was "God with us," "God manifest in the flesh." His work was miraculous. The greatest of all miracles is the winning of souls. Therefore only the miraculously born — those born of the Holy Spirit — can be truly instrumental in miraculously winning others.

Thank God, the day of the miraculous working of the power of the Christ is not past. His love still constrains men to turn from the power of Satan, and through them constrains still others. It remains only that you and I submit to the divine workings of His love, and we shall love men, we shall convince men, we shall save men. More truly, Jesus in us now will accomplish the same blessed work that He personally did while here on earth.

Oh, for the baptism of the Holy Ghost which shall fill our lives with the unselfish tenderness and sympathy and fellowship with the lost which filled the soul of Jesus Christ and made Him the soul winner of men!