The Attraction of the Cross # 1

The Attraction of the Cross # 1

[a sermon preached before the London Missionary Society. The impression produced by the delivery of this sermon first attracted public attention to the author. Of all his printed sermons, it remains the one most well known]

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me - this he said signifying what kind of death he would die" (John 12:32, 33).

"We preach Christ crucified" (1 Corinthians 1:23).

"For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power" (1 Corinthians 2:2-4).

If the perfection of wisdom consists in seeking the noblest ends by the fittest means, then does the cause of missions appear before the world, invested with the glory, and preferring the claims, of the wisest scheme for man's activity which has ever been devised. Of the benevolence and sublimity of our object, there can exist no doubt; and the only question which can arise about the rationality of our scheme, must relate to the adequacy of our means. We are not infrequently told that all attempts  to convert pagan nations to Christianity, not supported by the aid of miracles, must prove entirely ineffectual, or be followed with very inconsiderable success. That miracles were necessary at the introduction of Christianity, as the witnesses of its heavenly origin and descent, is obvious; they formed the visible signatures of the divine hand to the testimony of the Son of God and His apostles; but to argue for their repetition through succeeding ages, in every country which the gospel approaches for the first time, is to contend that a deed, however well arrested, cannot be admitted as valid unless the witnesses who originally signed it live forever to verify their signature. This objection, however, is best answered by an appeal to facts. However difficult it may be to ascertain with precision the exact time when the testimony of miracles ceased, nothing is more certain than that these witnesses had finished their evidence long before the conversion of the northern and western parts of Europe; and the demand of supernatural interposition, as necessary to the propagation of Christianity, is urged with an ill grace by a Protestant, when it is remembered that there is not a single Protestant country which did not receive the gospel unaccompanied with signs and wonders; and with still greater inconsistency is it made by an Englishman, when it is considered that this happy country, the glory of Christendom, the joy of the whole earth, and the evangelist of the world, was recovered from the thralldom of Saxon idolatry without one miraculous operation.

What, then, are the means with which we set out on this high ,and holy enterprise of converting the world? I answer, the doctrine of the Cross - for say Christ, "If I be lifted up," or "when I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me."

In these words our Lord announces the nature of His approaching death - He was about to be lifted up, or crucified; He predicts the consequences with which His crucifixion would be followed; all men would be gathered to Him; He specifies the means, and the manner of their conversion - they would be drawn, or attracted by an exhibition of His death. In other words, the text presents us with the great object of missionary zeal, the grand instrument of missionary exertion, and the final consummation of missionary success.

It will be instantly perceived that I have not sought after novelty of subject, and it will soon be discovered that I have not attained ingenuity or profundity of discussion. The state of my mind and feelings since I received the application of the directors, would alone have precluded these. Their request for my service on this occasion found me at the tomb of all that was dearest to me on earth, a situation not very favorable for penetrating into the depth of any other subject than my own irreparable loss. One thing which induced me to comply with their solicitation, was a hope that my mind would be drawn away in some degree from the heart-withering recollection of departed bliss - nor has that hope been altogether disappointed; for the subject of my sermon has often presented such visions of spiritual glory as have made the tear forget to fall, and hushed the sorrows of a bursting heart, and taught the preacher that while the missionary cause goes as the messenger of mercy to pagan realms abroad, it is one of the best comforters in the house of mourning at home.

1. The text presents us with the great OBJECT of missionary zeal, "To bring men to Christ." There are at the present moment more than six hundred million people in the appalling situation of the men whom the apostle describes as "without Christ in the world;" and the question is, with what feelings and what purposes as Christian should survey this vast and wretched portion of the family of man. To ascertain this, you have only to contemplate the scene which at your last anniversary was brought before you with such force of reason, pathos, and eloquence. Behold Paul at Athens. Think of the matchless splendor which blazed upon his view, as he rolled his eye round the enchanting panorama which encircled the hill of Mars. Around him, as he stood upon the summit of the rock, beneath the canopy of heaven, was spread a glorious prospect of mountains, islands, sea, and sky. 

Absorbed in the holy attraction of his mind, he saw no charms, felt no fascinations, but on the contrary was pierced with the most poignant distress - and what was the cause? Because he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. What must have been his indignant grief at the dishonor done by idolatry to God? What must have been his amazement at the weakness and folly of the human mind? What must have been his compassion for human wretchedness, when such stately monuments had not the smallest possible effect in turning away his view from the guilt which raised them and the misery which endured amidst them.

~John Angell James~

(continued with # 2)