The Drawing Power of the Cross

Rev. John Duncan, LL.D.

Taken from Precious Seed Discourses by Scottish Worthies, and slightly edited.

Text: "Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die" (John 12:31-33).

THE death by which Jesus should die was now fast approaching. He appears on this occasion to have had a foretaste both of "the travail of his soul" and of its fruits, which it was promised Him He should see, and be satisfied. Certain Greeks had come up to worship at the feast. Having heard of Jesus, they applied to one of the disciples, expressing a wish to see Him, and the disciples reported it to Jesus. Jesus saw in this the budding forth to its fulfilment of the promise that in the promised "root of Jesse the Gentiles should trust". These Greeks, some of the New Testament first fruits of the death He was to die, were present – yet the death itself must first be undergone, the very joys of seeing the first fruits reminding Him of its necessity. "The hour is come," said He, "that the Son of man should be glorified" (verse 23).

Already the hour has come for the nations to look to "the root of Jesse", which should rise to be an ensign for the people, and to whom the Gentiles should seek. But before this can be realised, His death was necessary. He must sow in tears, if He would reap in joy. He, the seed of corn, the root of the whole, must die. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (verse 24). "Much fruit!" – here is the joy that was set before Him. And He needed the joy set before Him, for inconceivably heavy were the toils, the agonies, and the sufferings that must precede. For the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame. To Him it was awful, but the joy was set before Him. He must endure the cross, He must die – must be the corn of wheat and fall into the ground and die.

And as this was the law for the Christ, so it is the law for the Christian. "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me" – follow me in hating his life – follow me in falling as a corn of wheat into the ground and dying. "If any man serve me, let him follow me," said Jesus, "and where I am, there shall also my servant be." Where I am – on the cross – there shall also my servant be. "If any man serve me, him will my Father honour" (verses 25 and 26).

Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross. He endured the cross, but it was awful. Awful to us to think of; awful to Him. Even with the joy set before Him, it was awful. Without the joy it would have been impossible to be endured: with the joy it could be sustained. "Now is my soul troubled: and what shall I say?" "Shall I say, 'Father, save me from this hour'?" (for so would I place the mark of interrogation). "Shall I say this: 'Father, save me from this hour'?" Ah, no! He says, "That I will not say. This I will say, 'Father, glorify thy name.' I came for this cause. For the cause of this hour came I unto this hour. I undertook the work just for this. The whole of my mission, incarnation, all that I have done, all that I have endured up to this moment, was for this: my not only being born and dying, but my being born that I might die." "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law" (Gal. 4:3,4). "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same" (Heb. 2:14). For it was necessary that this man should have somewhat to offer. "A body hast thou prepared me" (Heb. 10:5). "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God" (Heb. 10:7). "By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:10). "For this cause came I unto this hour. And now, troubled in soul I must be; I will not, I wish not to be otherwise. Father, glorify thy name." "Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (v. 28). "I have glorified it in thee; I will glorify it in thee still more." Of this voice some gave one interpretation: that it thundered. Others said that an angel spoke to Him. Jesus Himself said, "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes" (v. 30). The voice came for the sake of those from whom Jesus departed and did hide Himself. "But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him" (v. 37). For their sakes, of whom Esaias had prophesied that He had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, came this voice. Yes, for their sakes, and so for the sake of all unto whom this recorded voice comes today. God speaks to us from heaven, to the whole visible church – to the visible church, in whose ear the testimony of the Father concerning His Son sounds – God speaks. He speaks in His word to all to whom it comes. Not for Jesus' sake, but for the sake of these unbelieving people. And God does something for the sake of those whose eyes He has blinded, of those who cannot see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their heart. He had not forsaken them utterly. It is to be feared multitudes of them forsook Him. And now Jesus explains to these unbelieving people, with the blinded eyes and hardened heart, the meaning of the voice, and the meaning of the death He was about to die. "Now," says he, "is the judgement of this world. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me, signifying," or giving to be understood by them, "what death he should die."

First, we are here to contemplate the death of Christ as setting forth "the judgement of this world", the crisis of this world. "Now is the judgement of this world."

It was a mighty hour for this world; it was the hour of its judgement. The world is a lost world, but the lost world is a Divinity-visited world. In this world God had been dishonoured. But in this world God was now glorified; more glorified than He had been already in this world, more glorified than ever He had been in the heaven of heavens. Jesus had glorified His name upon the earth. Truth had sprung from earth, while righteousness looked down from heaven. Here stood a guilty condemned world, with the Incarnate God tabernacling in it. Here stood humanity, the race which had been as smoke in God's nostrils, a fire that burneth all the day. There stood sinless humanity in higher than Adamic glory. There stood the man Christ Jesus, the glorifier of God – man, the equal and fellow of the Lord of hosts – human excellency in its perfection united to eternal Godhead, in the close union in which the two natures were one person, Immanuel. So it stood – a sinful race, and the righteous One – man, God's dishonour, and the man Christ Jesus, God's glorifier. And now was coming the judgement of this world; not the still future judgement, for Jesus said, "Now . . ." signifying by what death He should die. Ah! but that future judgement proceeds upon principles deducible from this one. In this judgement is the coming judgement, already fixed and determined in its seeds and principles.

Here, the world is not taken unawares. The Son of God is not sent to an unprepared world. He came to His own. Prophets and holy men of God had for the previous thousand years been announcing His coming. People had been set apart and placed under a system of training for His reception. People had been taught to look forward to "the consolation of Israel". In Judah's land God was well known; His name was great in Israel. In Salem also was His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion. He had not dealt so with any nation, and as for His judgements, these other nations had not known them. Now He comes, comes to His own, comes to the vineyard planted on the very fruitful hill, planted with the stones gathered out and the hedge planted round, planted with the noble vine, in that vineyard of which the Lord of hosts says, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" (Isa. 5:4). He had planted the vineyard long ago, and had sent seeking fruit, and they had taken one servant after another and killed and stoned them. "Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them saying, They will reverence my son" (Mark 12:6). And so He came. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). And that was in Judah's land: that was to men prepared. And what was the reception? "But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father" (John 15:24). Here then is the judgement of this world: for there is no difference. The apostle says, "What then? are we better than they?" (Romans 3:9). I say, What then, are we better than they? "No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." If there were a spark of good in fallen man it would have come out, it would all gather and cluster round him, and finding him, "increase with the increase of God". If there were aught of good, it would find its way to the Christ of God when He came.

He did have some, indeed, who came to Him. But how? "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12, 13). "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). So He came to His own, and His own received him not. Those who received Him were as little disposed as others; they received Him, not in consequence of being born of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

Here then is the judgement of this world. This world received not the Christ. "Now is the judgement of this world." Ay, Adam fell, but Christ has come! He has finished transgression, and made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness. Man hath gone away from God. God hath come to bring him back. But will fallen man go back? The two cherubims with flaming sword are not keeping the door to the way of life. The way into the Eden of God is open. God in Christ is reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses. Will they go back then? Oh, no, no! Speak not of Adam's fall. The second Adam reverses it. No return! Say not, "Adam fell." Who fell the second fall? When the second Adam came and ye said, "No," who fell that second fall? To what gainsaying and disobedient people has Messiah stretched out His hands all the day long? And who is worse – the man who went away from God, or the man to whom God said, "Come back by Jesus Christ," and he would not go back? Now is the world judged. That is one point, showing the equity of its condemnation.

What was the punishment a guilty world deserved? Behold the Lamb of God – and if these things were done in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If the pains of death encompassed Him, and the sorrows of hell took hold on Him, if Jehovah said, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, smite the shepherd," and He had done no iniquity, neither was any deceit found in His mouth, what is the estimate of sin now in what Jesus endured? Behold the judgement of this world! Behold what He endured! Behold that, by the endurance of which all saved ones are saved, because He endured it! What is the estimate of sin now, taking into view that they rejected all that, when presented to them as the ground of a new hope and gracious acceptance?

And now, the world rises up against the Son of God. "Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round" (Psl. 22:12). "For they be many that fight against me, O Thou most High" (Psl. 56:2). "My strong foes and they that hate me are too many for me." "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together" (Acts 4:27). The world! the world! what hath it done? Ah, there are some crimes so great that they would efface almost all minor criminality! Such, says God, were the transgressions of the apostate ten tribes compared with the sin of Jerusalem. Put now Adam's transgression and the whole mass of the transgressions committed since the world was, and what are they? They all meet, they all strike at the life of God inferentially, but this directly. God, as Divinity, cannot die. If man, who is a deicide in heart, is to get opportunity, God must have a mortal nature, and God takes the mortal nature, and in that nature is put to death. That is the world: the world that was, and the world that is. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15). "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16). "Now is the judgement of this world."

II. But next, Jesus says, "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. . . . This he said, signifying what death he should die."

This world, this present world, is an evil world, and hath an evil prince, "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." This world is Satan's world. True, it is God's world for He made it; but it is Satan's world for he has usurped it; and men made in the image of God have sold themselves for nought to be his thralls, and he rules and lords it over them, working in the children of disobedience. Men talk much of their freewill and independence. Men scoff at spiritual influence, but every man is under it. Every man is under a spiritual influence. Every man's body is either a temple of the Holy Spirit, or of Satan, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; and Satan exercises his power especially in keeping men from Christ, if he possibly can. "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2 Cor. 4:3,4). Satan is not satisfied with the corruption of man's nature. He well might be, yet he is not. He knows the gospel has a mighty power. Though only by the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit does it convert a soul, yet it has a mighty power. Even as a moral means, it has a mighty power of adaptation, which Satan trembles at, lest, notwithstanding all that he knows of the desperate wickedness of the heart, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Therefore, lest it should shine, he blinds their minds. Every man, then, into whose heart God has not shined to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ – every man unto whom the gospel yet is hid – is devil-led and devil-bound. He has a prince, the prince of this world, ruling and reigning; and under promise of liberty makes him the slave of corruption. "Now," says Christ, "shall the prince of this world be cast out. . . . This he said, signifying what death he should die."

He came that "through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb 2:14,15). Satan had the power – the power of the jailor and executioner. Jesus died. The jailor's power was gone. Jesus died, but the foundation of Satan's kingdom was destroyed. Death snapped asunder the union which held together soul and body. It could not snap asunder the union which bound soul and body to Godhead. It was still Immanuel in the grave and Immanuel in paradise! The body of Christ was not separated from the Godhead. The soul of Christ was not separated from the Godhead. Death had put in his iron teeth as far as they could penetrate. And through the external body they had penetrated to the separating of the soul and body of Jesus; his teeth, his iron teeth, found a hard adamantine union that could not be dissolved, and soon the body and soul of the Lord Jesus – never either of them separated from the Godhead – were speedily united to one another; God "having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it" (Acts 2:24). He destroyed death and him that had the power of death. And now, He appears living – a living Saviour, dead and alive again, and free and powerful to come as the strong man and snatch, come and legally take, His own redeemed, His own purchased - to come and condescend to open blind eyes, to turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified through faith that is in Him. And now the Spirit testifies of judgement, because the prince of this world is judged.

III. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he spake, signifying what death he should die." "Draw all men to myself." The prince of this world held men in his thrall, but by His death Jesus judged the prince of this world. "Lifted up," He says, "I will draw all men to another prince. I will draw all men unto me." The crucified Saviour draws men from the prince of this world. Oh, Satan is sadly foiled! One crucified in weakness, hanging on a tree, the buffetted, derided, spat upon, despised of men, "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief", despised and not esteemed; but He endured the cross, despising the shame, and draws all men to Himself.

Draws all men – draws them away from the judged prince of this world. The proud run to the Meek and Lowly in His humility, crucified. Those who sought honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only, run to the Taunted, the Condemned, Vilified, dying the malefactor's death on the accursed tree, and glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus. He draws. The worldling looks from all this world in which his heart was bound up, he looks to the One not of this world, lifted up above the world on a piece of wood, a poor despised dying man, and he leaves all, and runs to Him. He draws him. The votary of sinful pleasure looks on this aspect of deepest pain, of holiest pain, and he quits his lusts, and runs to the holy Sufferer. He draws. He draws the miser from his hoards, draws the sensualist from his pleasures, draws the self-righteous from his efforts, draws the abandoned from his vices, draws the proud from his arrogancy, draws the brutish from his insensibility.

The dying One has a drawing power. What kind of men will you find such that the Saviour draws none of them? "I will draw all men unto me. This he spake, signifying what death he should die." Christ is all attraction. The world does not know that. The world thinks Him and feels Him all repulsion, but He is all attraction. He repelleth not; He draws. "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

He is all attraction; but lifted up on the cross He is most of all attractive. All His drawing power is concentrated there. We might think there was more attractive power when He was lifted up on the Mount of Transfiguration, or when He was lifted up and set on the right hand of the Majesty on high, far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named. These do draw when the cross has drawn; but till the cross draw these draw not. The heart may go out indeed selfishly after these things, but it goes not out after Him. But in the Crucified, if you see not Himself, you see nothing to attract; you see not a crown of glory but a crown of thorns. These are not robes of heavenly splendour: it is but a mock robe. These are not all the angels of God worshipping Him: they are knees bent in derision. That is not a mighty hand which is nailed to the cross: He is crucified in weakness. There is no honour there, no splendour there. There is nothing that all the world likes, but everything that all the world hates in the circumstantials of it. Unless there be attraction in Himself, in His shewing His heart, there can be none extrinsic. If there be attraction, and there is, it must be all intrinsic.

And what say the drawn about it? What account do they give? Some of them possibly can give very little account of it at all, for the man may feel his heart affected when he can but ill tell what it is; a man may feel rightly and deeply, and not be very good at explaining, and those who can give some account may give an inadequate account. Woe is me for the man who can tell all he sees in Christ to draw him! Woe is me for the man who has not experience of more drawing than he is able to give account of in words; he sees but a measured degree of excellence in Christ. But surely the drawn can give some account. It is this: Grace, grace; and now, in connection with grace, holiness. Till they were drawn, He was despised and they esteemed Him not; but when drawn they say, "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isa. 53:4). What said one drawn man about it? "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). "He is derided, to save me from eternal ignominy and confusion of face. He endures the malice of devils and men, that I might be free from everlasting torment. He bares his breast to receive the sword of God, which was about to pierce into my heart. He is taking and drinking that cup of sorrow, of the red wine of the wrath and indignation of Almighty God, which was my portion, and which, but for Him, I should have been drinking to eternal ages – He hath emptied it. He hath put it empty of curse, full of blessing, into my hands. What have I to do any more with idols!" "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14). "Ah!, now," says the former voluptuary, "there is a bitter cup for Christ – a sweet cup for me of holy joy." "There," says the once ambitious man, "there is an awful degradation for that glorious one. It humbles me in the dust to think of it. Oh, there His crowned head is encircled with the mock crown of thorns, that I may wear the crown of life that fadeth not away!" "And there,", says the once covetous man, "is He who was rich, now emptied. Though He was rich, yet for my sake He became poor, that I through His poverty might be rich with a treasure which fadeth not away, eternal in the heavens."

He draws: "I will draw all men unto me." And "who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" He has drawn Jews, Romans, Greeks; and distant lands and isles have heard, and hearing have submitted themselves unto Him, and the strange gods have faded out of the strong places. He hath drawn men in Britain's isle; He hath drawn men in Glasgow city; and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He hath drawing power. Lifted up once on the cross, His crucifixion in one sense is perpetual; in the proclamation of it, and in the power of it, and in the remembrance of it, He draws still.

Has He drawn me? Has He drawn you? From what, to what? From what has He drawn? Has He drawn from this world and from its prince? All that He draws, He draws from that quarter – all fuel for the eternal burnings, and He draws all to make them pillars in the temple of his God. He draws "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified" (Acts 26:18). Has He drawn you? Has He drawn you out of darkness into light, out of Satan's kingdom into His own kingdom – drawn you from the present evil world – drawn you from all its sentiments, likings and dislikings, wishes, efforts – drawn you, not grudgingly, out of its society? A man may be drawn away out of the world into a monastery, and carry the world with him in the shape of the love of it – his body drawn, his carcase drawn, but his unwilling soul held back by the beloved world, to which he is not crucified, not crucified to all its godless sentiments, to all its selfish ways, to all its vain honours, by being drawn to the Crucified. Has He drawn you from yourself? To draw man from himself requires the most drawing force of any. Has He drawn you from all your own sentiments, from all your own willings, from all your virtues and from all your sins, from your religions and irreligions, from your fancied good and real evil – drawn you away from all? Have you nothing now but Him? "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14). The apostle did not say, "God forbid that I should glory" – leaving out the cross of Christ from the causes of his glory – but "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Mistake not that. You say, We put it in among the causes of our glorying. God forbid that I should glory if it has not a place. That's not it. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." So it is. "By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." I was not crucified. Christ crucified: that is the drawing object – drawn to it – drawn away from all that is not Christ, drawn to Christ – drawn to Him in His person, covenant-engagements, work, gospel, law, grace, authority – drawn to Him as your Prophet, and Priest, and King – as all your salvation and all your desire. Are you being drawn? drawn more and more? If Christ has begun drawing you, sure I am He has not finished drawing you. We are not so near Jesus as we should be, as we must be, and as we shall be if we are under His drawing. All who have been drawn are being drawn still; and all who have been drawn, and are being drawn, are coming to Christ. They have heard Him who says, "Come!" and they have set out to go to Him; and they're going, going. He is always saying, "Come, come!" and they are coming and getting nearer.

What steps of progress are we making as the results of this drawing? Surely, surely if we are not coming, He is not drawing. He is drawing, it is true, in His gracious invitations, but so drawing as that the sinner resists them all still. Surely there is another drawing than that, a drawing not to be resisted. Are we drawn by that drawing? There is a drawing with the cords of love and the bands of a man. Sweet affections, different from all constraints and contraries, but stronger than all constraints – more powerful than all necessity – the constraint of love. What stumbling-blocks in the way are you getting over? What other attractions are being loosed and letting you on? What bands untied? What swiftness given to the feet, making them like hinds' feet? What kindling up of the love strong as death, and the jealousy cruel as the grave? What sacrifices, what accounting of all things but loss for the excellency of Jesus Christ? What suffering for His sake of the loss of all things, and counting them but dung if so be we may win Christ and be found in Him? Do you ever feel His attractive power coming and drawing hard away from detentions? When you are slow and He goes away, putting in His hand at the hole of the door, and leaving the smell of the sweet myrrh, what meetings of heart – what openings even for the gone Beloved – and when He is not found, what rising and going about the city? What drawing to a crucified Saviour? Oh, the world likes a crowned Saviour tolerably well, if it were a crown without a cross, but a crucified Saviour – to draw men to be crucified! A crown without a cross for me, says the natural heart. Jesus is drawing you to the cross. Do you love His cross, the cross He bore, the cross on which He was crucified, the cross He gives to you, that you may have some conformity in this too to the image of God's Son, being crucified with Him? Has the cross grown sweet yet? Have any of the aloes, myrrh, and cassia dropped from His cross upon yours and perfumed it? Can you rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer shame and reproach for the name of Jesus – to do good and to suffer for it, like Him who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously? Is death becoming more pleasant? Are you getting any nearer the mind of being willing to depart and to be with Christ? I give not this as a mark essential to the being of grace, but as a mark of its progress, of God's drawing - a point to which even the beginner is to be looking forward. Although the beginner may be more pleased that Christ come and be with him here, and think that better than to depart and to be with Christ, yet let him be drawn a little closer and he will alter his mind, and think that, though good - O how unspeakably good it is to have Christ here - it is better far to depart and be with Christ. What zeal, what revenge do you feel and exercise toward counter-drawing? What revenge? O take a good vengeance on the flesh, on the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Take a good vengeance! What revenge do they stir up in the man who is drawn and counter-drawn? If he is led by the Spirit, if the drawing to Christ is the stronger and prevailing, oh, then, what a real distaste of the hindrances, and what shewing of that, not by bare complaining of them, but by setting-to in good earnest, in the strength of divine grace, to have all these bonds cut through, that the soul may escape as a bird out of the snare of the fowler, and rise singing, singing, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (Ps. 124:8).

Undrawn sinners, you know nothing of this; you have not experienced this, and so the words remain to be fulfilled about you. He hath not ceased drawing. But, oh, how can we persuade you! We know we cannot, because we cannot do God's work, cannot open your eyes, cannot shine in your hearts, to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But, oh, if but one ray would shine in there, you would not stay away, the devil could not keep you! If but one ray would shine, it would draw. Truly light is sweet to the eyes. O that you but knew how sweet light is! O that you knew what sweet blessings Jesus bestows! If you but knew the treasures of loveliness and of love that are in Him, if you but knew the riches of the poor One, who though rich, yet for the sake of His people became poor, that they through His poverty might be rich, you couldn't, couldn't hate Him – not but that you are bad enough to do it, but the attraction that is in Him would not let you. O be persuaded, although we cannot give you sight. O that the Lord would enable us, His ministers, to persuade you that you are blind, that the darkness is passed away and the true light now shineth, and it is only that the darkness hath blinded your eyes! O that we could persuade you of that! Then would be heard the cry to Jesus, "Lord, that I might receive my sight!" O that we could persuade you that there is an unknown attractiveness in Jesus Christ! Then you might come and say, "Lord, thou hast told me about it, and that is all. Thou hast told me the doctrine, that is all man can do. Lord, draw me. I shall never know what drawing is till thou draw, till thou put it forth."

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