Manner of Presenting the Truth
Those who labor in word and doctrine have a great work before
them to tear from the minds of those for whom they labor the fatal
deceptions of Satan, and to impress them with the importance of
aiming to reach God’s great standard of righteousness. They should
pray earnestly for divine enlightenment, and for wisdom to present
the truth as it is in Jesus. Sympathy, tenderness, and love, woven into
their discourses and manifested in their lives, would disarm opposition,
weaken prejudice, and open the way to many hearts.
It is to be regretted that many do not realize that the manner in
which Bible truth is presented has much to do with the impressions
made upon minds, and with the Christian character afterward devel-
oped by those who receive the truth. Instead of imitating Christ in
his manner of labor, many are severe, critical, and dictatorial. They
repulse instead of winning souls. Such will never know how many
weak ones their harsh words have wounded and discouraged.
Christ came to break the yoke from off the necks of the oppressed,
to strengthen the weak, to comfort those who mourn, to set at liberty
those who are bound, and to bind up the broken-hearted. The servants
of Christ are to take the work where he left it when he ascended, and
carry it forward in his name. But it is Satan’s constant aim to so shape
circumstances that the workers will become disconnected from God,
and labor in their own spirit and in their own strength.
Our ministers need more of the wisdom that Paul had. When he
went to labor for the Jews, he did not first make prominent the birth,
betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ, notwithstanding these
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were the special truths for that time. He first brought them down step
by step over the promises that had been made of a Saviour, and over
the prophecies that pointed him out. After dwelling upon these until
the specifications were distinct in the minds of all, and they knew that
they were to have a Saviour, he then presented the fact that this Saviour
had already come. Christ Jesus fulfilled every specification. This was
the “guile” with which Paul caught souls. He presented the truth in
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