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The Best Way

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Sep 30, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 9.

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The Best Way.

By C. L. Taylor

By C. L. Taylor.
WOULD you bring men to the Lord Jesus Christ?—Win them. "He that winneth souls is wise."
Men are very much like certain kinds of dumb animals. They like to be coaxed, but not driven.
A few days ago a friend related his experience in trying to corral some of his animals. No amount of effort enabled him to drive them into the enclosure. Tho all the time apparently trying to find the entrance, they simply could not see it until the trough had been filled.
Coercion ofttimes blinds men to duty, making them unwilling to do even those things which normally would be a pleasure to them.
The plan of the Gospel is that of drawing. Said Jesus, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself."—Douay Bible. By this same plan will His followers succeed. The love of Christ which makes one willing, yea, anxious to die that others may live is so beautiful, so unselfish, so overpowering withal that even unwilling spirits are compelled to yield.
All around us are those upon whose ears our words of invitation and counsel fall as nagging twits. Not thus can they be reached. They are to be persuaded, and will be persuaded, only by the silence of love; not by preaching for them, but by pictures—character pictures painted in your life and mine by the divine Artist—by beholding which they become changed.
The love of God beautifies every life in which it dwells. And beauty always attracts. A beautiful character is heaven's greatest argument against sin. Where words fail and logic is defeated, there beauty of character wins its greatest victories.
The best way to bring men to Christ is the only way. Only by being "lifted up" can we truly win men, and God will lift up only those who, like His Son, reflect the image of the divine.
In all the earnestness and simplicity of our souls we need to submit to God, and while submitting pray, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."