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T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
February 1930
The A t t r a c t i v e Chr i st B y R ev . W illiam H . P ike
Noah Webster, maker of our first American diction ary, says : “ I should be ashamed to acknowledge Christ as my Saviour if I could comprehend Him—He would be no greater than myself. Such is my sense o f sin, and consciousness of my inability to save myself, that I feel I need a superhuman Saviour— one so great and glorious that I cannot comprehend Him.” Napoleon I, Emperor
"For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root but o f a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men; a man o f sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised: and we esteemed, him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten o f God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastise
ment of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed ."— Isa. S3 :l-5. , OR centuries the picture of Jesus Christ, as Isaiah saw Him, h a s been held before us. We n e e d this picture and cannot see it too often. There are other attrac tive pictures of J e s u s Christ. What was it that drew the cultured Greeks and brought them to Philip, “ saying, Sir, we would see Jesus’’ (John 12:21)? Je rusalem was astir' over the fact that Jesus, who had raised Lazarus, was coming into the city to the feast. The people gathered along the roadside with palm branches in their hands, and made a pavement of t h e i r g a r m e n t s and branches over which Jesus rode info Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of an ass. They all cried, “Hosanna: Blessed is he that cometh in the name o f the Lord, even the king o f Israel’’ (John 12:13), thus unconsciously
of France, said of Christ: “ The nearer I approach, the more carefully I exam ine. Everything is above me. Everything remains grand—of a g r a n d e u r which overpowers. His re ligion is a revelation from an Intelligence' which cer tainly is not that of man.” Daniel Webster, Amer ican statesman and orator, s a i d : “ I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. . . . I believe there is no other way of salvation than through the merits of His atonement.” William E. Gladstone, one of England’s greatest statesmen, testified: “ All that I think, all that I hope, all that I write,, and all that I live for is báséd upon the divinity of Jesús Christ; the one central joy of our poor wayward race.” It will be noticed that
these quotations are not ex clusively from the ranks of the Church. Jesus Christ does not need the testimony of those who are recog nized as leaders in the world, but it is interesting to see how He has attracted the interest, and appeals to the hearts of rúen. II. F igures T alk F or C hrist Seventy per cent of the earth’s surface is ruled by professing Christian governments. In 1820 there were 600,000,000 people in the world, 5,000,000 of whom were professing Christians. One hundred years later, in 1920, there were 1,125,000,000 people and 50,000,000 Christians, so that while the population of the world has doubled there has been a tenfold increase in Christianity. What is happening to non-Christian religions ? Let us consider two of the greatest. Buddhism counts its fol lowers by the millions. It began about six-hundred years before Christ and increased in numbers and power for twelve hundred years. Since then it has decreased. Mo hammedanism began about 600 A. D., and. increased for
Gilliam's Service HERE PASSED CHRIST, SEATED UPON AN ASS, THROUGH THE GOLDEN GATE OF JERUSALEM.
fulfilling a prophecy written five hundred years before. “ Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter o f Zion; . . . behold, thy king cometh . . . riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal o f an ass’’ (Zech. 9 :9 ). At this demonstration, the Pharisees were incensed and said, “ Behold, how ye prevail nothing; lo, the world is gone after him” (John 12:19). This was true not only in their day, but in ours also. The world is going after Jesus Christ. Some will challenge this, but here are some quotations and figures to prove this statement. I. T estimonies of M en of the W orld A bout C hrist The third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, said: “ A more beautiful and precious morsel of ethics I have never seen: it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian; that is to say, a disciple of the doc trines of Jesus.”
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