v a <4 ì ,
"OOQ^ K - -
' ^ qo ^ c ^- c A V
v
T his is t h e age of the crowd. There are more of us than ever before and we are more crowd-conscious. Everything is geared to the multitude. In the religious world, the successful preacher is the one who packs the church. The successful church is the one with biggest statistics. But while we are counting numbers, we are not making numbers count. The church has a mission to the multitude and the Gospel is for the millions, but our measurement these days is by size instead of sort, quantity instead of quality. We need to recover our sanity on this subject for we have gone off the deep end with a vengeance. If our equilibrium is to be restored we must study our Lord’s attitude toward the crowd, for here, as everywhere else, He is our example and He sets the pattern. We Must Have Compassion Jesus preached to crowds. He was, in a sense, a mass evangelist for He was a bearer of good news to the multi tude. His teaching and healing attracted thousands. Throughout the Gospels the constant refrain is “ great multitudes followed Him.” They came from every quar ter. They trod one upon another. They pressed upon Him until He had to use a boat for a pulpit. They packed houses until a paralytic had to be lowered through the roof. Crowds, crowds, crowds! What was His attitude toward the throngs? “ But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with com passion on them, because they fainted, and were scat tered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). He did not conform to them to win their favor. He did not condescend with a spirit of proud superiority. He did not pose as a critic and merely lambast them for their sins. He had compassion. They were as shepherd less sheep— and there is no better description of the masses today. We cannot help them if we take the approach of conformity, condescension, criticism. We must have compassion. Although our Lord had compassion, the Teacher did not commit Himself to the throng; the Master did not trust the multitude. We are told that on one occasion many believed in His name when they saw His miracles but He did not trust Himself to these because He knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man (John 2:23-25). He knew that a crowd is not dependable. He did not build His work on a mass movement. He knew that one day the multitude would cry, “ Crucify Him!” Where was His crowd when He was on trial, when He was crucified? Where were they just before Pentecost? We need to learn this lesson. Compassion on the crowd does not require committal to it. The multitude is un certain, even treacherous. We must not be deceived. Our Lord escaped from the crowd now and then to be still and pray. Unless we do the same we shall be swallowed up, assimilated by it.
V
s
THE KING'S BUSINESS
10
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs