Not because we first loved Him did Christ love us; but
"while we were yet sinners" He died for us. He does
not treat us according to our desert. Although our sins
have merited condemnation, He does not condemn us.
Year after year He has borne with our weakness and
ignorance, with our ingratitude and waywardness. Notwithstanding
our wanderings, our hardness of heart, our neglect
of His Holy Word, His hand is stretched out still.
Grace is an attribute of God exercised toward undeserving
human beings. We did not seek for it, but it was sent in search
of us. God rejoices to bestow His grace upon us, not because
we are worthy, but because we are so utterly unworthy. Our
only claim to His mercy is our great need.
The Lord God through Jesus Christ holds out His hand
all the day long in invitation to the sinful and fallen. He will
receive all. He welcomes all. It is His glory to pardon the
chief of sinners. He will take the prey from the mighty, He
will deliver the captive, He will pluck the brand from the
burning. He will lower the golden chain of His mercy to the
lowest depths of human wretchedness, and lift up the debased
soul contaminated with sin.
Every human being is the object of loving interest to Him
who gave His life that He might bring men back to God.
Souls guilty and helpless, liable to be destroyed by the arts
and snares of Satan, are cared for as a shepherd cares for the
sheep of his flock.
The Saviour's example is to be the standard of our service
for the tempted and the erring. The same interest and
tenderness and long-suffering that He has manifested toward
us, we are to manifest toward others. "As I have loved you,"
He says, "that ye also love one another." John 13:34. If
Christ dwells in us, we shall reveal His unselfish love toward
all with whom we have to do. As we see men and women in
need of sympathy and help, we shall not ask, "Are they
worthy?" but "How can I benefit them?"
Rich and poor, high and low, free and bond, are God's
heritage. He who gave His life to redeem man sees in every
human being a value that exceeds finite computation. By the
mystery and glory of the cross we are to discern His estimate
of the value of the soul. When we do this, we shall feel that
human beings, however degraded, have cost too much to be
treated with coldness or contempt. We shall realize the
importance of working for our fellow men, that they may be
exalted to the throne of God.
The lost coin, in the Saviour's parable, though lying in the
dirt and rubbish, was a piece of silver still. Its owner sought
it because it was of value. So every soul, however degraded by
sin, is in God's sight accounted precious. As the coin bore the
image and superscription of the reigning power, so man at his
creation bore the image and superscription of God. Though
now marred and dim through the influence of sin, the traces
of this inscription remain upon every soul. God desires to
recover that soul and to retrace upon it His own image in
righteousness and holiness.
How little do we enter into sympathy with Christ on that
which should be the strongest bond of union between us and
Him--compassion for depraved, guilty, suffering souls, dead
in trespasses and sins! The inhumanity of man toward man
is our greatest sin. Many think that they are representing the
justice of God while they wholly fail of representing His
tenderness and His great love. Often the ones whom they meet
with sternness and severity are under the stress of temptation.
Satan is wrestling with these souls, and harsh, unsympathetic
words discourage them and cause them to fall a prey to the
tempter's power.
It is a delicate matter to deal with minds. Only He who
reads the heart knows how to bring men to repentance. Only
His wisdom can give us success in reaching the lost. You
may stand up stiffly, feeling, "I am holier than thou," and it
matters not how correct your reasoning or how true your
words; they will never touch hearts. The love of Christ,
manifested in word and act, will win its way to the soul, when the
reiteration of precept or argument would accomplish nothing.
We need more of Christlike sympathy; not merely sympathy
for those who appear to us to be faultless, but sympathy
for poor, suffering, struggling souls, who are often overtaken
in fault, sinning and repenting, tempted and discouraged. We
are to go to our fellow men, touched, like our merciful High
Priest, with the feeling of their infirmities.
It was the outcast, the publican and sinner, the despised
of the nations, that Christ called and by His loving-kindness
compelled to come unto Him. The one class that He would
never countenance was those who stood apart in their
self-esteem and looked down upon others.
"Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them
to come in," Christ bids us, "that My house may be filled."
In obedience to this word we must go to the heathen who are
near us, and to those who are afar off. The "publicans and
harlots" must hear the Saviour's invitation. Through the
kindness and long-suffering of His messengers the invitation
becomes a compelling power to uplift those who are sunken
in the lowest depths of sin.
Christian motives demand that we work with a steady
purpose, an undying interest, an ever-increasing importunity, for
the souls whom Satan is seeking to destroy. Nothing is to
chill the earnest, yearning energy for the salvation of the lost.
Mark how all through the word of God there is manifest
the spirit of urgency, of imploring men and women to come
to Christ. We must seize upon every opportunity, in private
and in public, presenting every argument, urging every
motive of infinite weight, to draw men to the Saviour. With
all our power we must urge them to look unto Jesus and to
accept His life of self-denial and sacrifice. We must show
that we expect them to give joy to the heart of Christ by using
every one of His gifts in honoring His name.
Saved by Hope
"We are saved by hope." Romans 8:24. The fallen must
be led to feel that it is not too late for them to be men. Christ
honored man with His confidence and thus placed him on his
honor. Even those who had fallen the lowest He treated with
respect. It was a continual pain to Christ to be brought into
contact with enmity, depravity, and impurity; but never did
He utter one expression to show that His sensibilities were
shocked or His refined tastes offended. Whatever the evil
habits, the strong prejudices, or the overbearing passions of
human beings, He met them all with pitying tenderness. As
we partake of His Spirit, we shall regard all men as brethren,
with similar temptations and trials, often falling and struggling
to rise again, battling with discouragements and difficulties,
craving sympathy and help. Then we shall meet
them in such a way as not to discourage or repel them, but to
awaken hope in their hearts. As they are thus encouraged,
they can say with confidence, "Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the
Lord shall be a light unto me." He will "plead my cause, and
execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light,
and I shall behold His righteousness." Micah 7:8, 9.
God "looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He fashioneth their hearts alike."
Psalm 33:14, 15.
He bids us, in dealing with the tempted and the erring,
consider "thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Galatians 6:1.
With a sense of our own infirmities, we shall have compassion
for the infirmities of others.
"Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast
thou that thou didst not receive? "One is your Master; . . .
and all ye are brethren." "Why dost thou judge thy brother?
or why dost thou set at nought thy brother?" "Let us not
therefore judge one another: . . . but judge this rather, that
no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his
brother's way." 1 Corinthians 4:7; Matthew 23:8; Romans
14:10, 13.
It is always humiliating to have one's errors pointed out.
None should make the experience more bitter by needless
censure. No one was ever reclaimed by reproach; but many
have thus been repelled and have been led to steel their hearts
against conviction. A tender spirit, a gentle, winning deportment,
may save the erring and hide a multitude of sins.
The apostle Paul found it necessary to reprove wrong, but
how carefully he sought to show that he was a friend to the
erring! How anxiously he explained to them the reason of
his action! He made them understand that it cost him pain
to give them pain. He showed his confidence and sympathy
toward the ones who were struggling to overcome.
"Out of much affliction and anguish of heart," he said, "I
wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved,
but that ye might know the love which I have more
abundantly unto you." 2 Corinthians 2:4. "For though I made
you sorry with my epistle, I do not regret it: though I did
regret it, . . . I now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry,
but that ye were made sorry unto repentance. . . . For
behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a
godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what
clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear,
yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In
everything ye approved yourselves to be pure in the matter.
. . . Therefore we have been comforted." 2 Corinthians 7:
8-13, A.R.V.
"I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning
you." "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you all making request
with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day
until now;" "being confident of this very thing, that He who
began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus
Christ: even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf
of you all, because I have you in my heart." "Therefore, my
brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown,
so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." "Now we live,
if ye stand fast in the Lord." Verse 16, A.R.V.; Philippians 1:
3-5; 1:6, 7, A.R.V.; 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 3:8.
Paul wrote to these brethren as "saints in Christ Jesus;"
but he was not writing to those who were perfect in character.
He wrote to them as men and women who were striving
against temptation and who were in danger of falling. He
pointed them to "the God of peace, that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep."
He assured them that "through the blood of the everlasting
covenant" He will "make you perfect in every good work
to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in
His sight, through Jesus Christ." Hebrews 13:20, 21.
When one at fault becomes conscious of his error, be careful
not to destroy his self-respect. Do not discourage him by
indifference or distrust. Do not say, "Before giving him my
confidence, I will wait to see whether he will hold out." Often
this very distrust causes the tempted one to stumble.
We should strive to understand the weakness of others.
We know little of the heart trials of those who have been
bound in chains of darkness and who lack resolution and
moral power. Most pitiable is the condition of him who is
suffering under remorse; he is as one stunned, staggering,
sinking into the dust. He can see nothing clearly. The mind
is beclouded, he knows not what steps to take. Many a poor
soul is misunderstood, unappreciated, full of distress and
agony--a lost, straying sheep. He cannot find God, yet he
has an intense longing for pardon and peace.
Oh, let no word be spoken to cause deeper pain! To the
soul weary of a life of sin, but knowing not where to find
relief, present the compassionate Saviour. Take him by the
hand, lift him up, speak to him words of courage and hope.
Help him to grasp the hand of the Saviour.
We become too easily discouraged over the souls who do
not at once respond to our efforts. Never should we cease to
labor for a soul while there is one gleam of hope. Precious
souls cost our self-sacrificing Redeemer too dear a price to be
lightly given up to the tempter's power.
We need to put ourselves in the place of the tempted ones.
Consider the power of heredity, the influence of evil associations
and surroundings, the power of wrong habits. Can we
wonder that under such influences many become degraded?
Can we wonder that they should be slow to respond to efforts
for their uplifting?
Often, when won to the gospel, those who appeared
coarse and unpromising will be among its most loyal adherents
and advocates. They are not altogether corrupt. Beneath
the forbidding exterior there are good impulses that might be
reached. Without a helping hand many would never recover
themselves, but by patient, persistent effort they may be
uplifted. Such need tender words, kind consideration, tangible
help. They need that kind of counsel which will not extinguish
the faint gleam of courage in the soul. Let the workers
who come in contact with them consider this.
Some will be found whose minds have been so long debased
that they will never in this life become what under more
favorable circumstances they might have been. But the bright
beams of the Sun of Righteousness may shine into the soul.
It is their privilege to have the life that measures with the life
of God. Plant in their minds uplifting, ennobling thoughts.
Let your life make plain to them the difference between vice
and purity, darkness and light. In your example let them
read what it means to be a Christian. Christ is able to uplift
the most sinful and place them where they will be acknowledged
as children of God, joint heirs with Christ to the
immortal inheritance.
By the miracle of divine grace, many may be fitted for
lives of usefulness. Despised and forsaken, they have become
utterly discouraged; they may appear stoical and stolid. But
under the ministration of the Holy Spirit, the stupidity that
makes their uplifting appear so hopeless will pass away. The
dull, clouded mind will awake. The slave of sin will be set
free. Vice will disappear, and ignorance will be overcome.
Through the faith that works by love, the heart will be
purified and the mind enlightened.