The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-03-13
ON ATTRACTIVE
POWER OF CHRIST
REV. GEO. Il. MACK breaches
STRONG SERMON AT FIRST
CUMBERLAND CHURCH.
SAYS ALL MEN ARE PAUTISANS
They Give Their Allegiance To
Great Principles, Declares
Speaker.


Cumberland Presbyterian church, oil
Sunday morning, Rev. Geo. H. Macl
preached a strong sermon from th'
text: Il, if l be lifted up from tbs
Garth, will draw all men unto my
self" John 1892 The theme OF the
discourse was the Attractive Power
of Christ"
DR.. Mack said in part;
"All men are partisans. They give
their allegiance to great principles.
Great causes compete for their devo-
ton and their time. The greatest is
sue in the world is that of good and
evil and on the battlefield where this
war is waged men range themselves
on this side or that
Three divisions will classify all
men upon the deepest issues. We
are in the service of the material or
the spiritual, the transient or the
eternal, the sinful or the righteous.
And Biblical writer's often grouped
those who served the first or each Of
these couplets as under the power Of
the prince of this world. Whole ma
lions they saw given over to this life.
This is the truth that possessed
Jesus mind when the Greeks came TO
talk with him in the temple. He saw
in them the representatives of the
nations of the great West, of the
great world that lay beyond. He
longed to see them forsake the stand
ards of their prince and yield to the
sweet reasonableness of his gospel, |
the service of the higher and the
abiding. At that moment the shadow
Of the cross passed over him and
his soul with its deep hui
but he saw its future power
ind then uttered the reassuring prom
Sc, the victorious note found in the
ext On the great battlefield OF hui
nan life he will erect his standard
md will draw, not compel, but draw
IL men unto him. He asserts a uni
'ersal attractive power.
There are no limitations to the
AL and we must make none. He
avs not those who believe, the elect,
ut all. He has a confidence that
here is something in what he is and
hat he does-what he stands for
nat appeals to every man. Or we
lay better say that in every man is a
'nging, need that Jesus says he will
II. What is that universal need?
Man has many needs, but in his
loral life two are supreme. One is
hungering for God. Men every
here feel that the material is not
!, that sphere of the divine en- !.
lrouds all. This life is only frag-
ent, and though the body must die .
that of all animals, man must have =
more to round out and com y
etc his being. AS the shell from
e sea ever sings Of its ocean home, c
the souls of all men vibrate to the =
ought and hope of the divine com
citing them.
Another universal is the conscious
IS of sin and the longing to be freed
om its weighty burden. The sense X
shame is with men, in the presence
law violated and divine love out
ged. Arms are stretched heaven
Lrd and the smoke of a thousand
ars arise tn atone for the sine of en-
n. "a
Does Jesus Christ answer to these ce
gings of the soul? He cannot draw We
IN unless he does. ri
AS showing God to man, none has 20
lie more. He found men possessed Lo
the idea that God was far removed TN
wrathful and he made him known sp'
Father. He lived in daily fellow acl
p with him, and showed how we
y do the same. And he satisfied pre-
t deep longing for immortality by IN
wing aside the veil and assuring the
Sc who enlisted In the pursuit of the
higher life untrammelled among int
blessed. Tn
But did he lift the weight of sin ant
dha taught of God, but could not 90
owe the burden. Jesus was pointed N
as "the Lamb OF God that taketh
y the sin of the world" He did l.
no formal or transitional way -
mechanical or legalist conception
answer for Calvary's act-but in $500
cry direct and personal one. On Das,
cross he succeeded in showing IL opeI
awful extent to which sin goes to mo- NOR
eve Its purpose and he laid It bare secu
he sight Of men; (2) the extent to ,
h divine love will go to draw men