Tactfulness
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mission and His work. Step by step he led his hearers on, showing
the importance of honoring the law of God. He gave due honor to the
ceremonial law, showing that it was Christ who instituted the Jewish
economy and the sacrificial service. Then he brought them down to the
first advent of the Redeemer, and showed that in the life and death of
Christ every specification of the sacrificial service had been fulfilled.
The Gentiles, Paul approached by exalting Christ, and then present-
ing the binding claims of the law. He showed how the light reflected by
the cross of Calvary gave significance and glory to the whole Jewish
economy.
Thus the apostle varied his manner of labor, shaping his message
to the circumstances under which he was placed. After patient labor
he was successful to a large degree; yet there were many who would
not be convinced. Some there are today who will not be convinced
by any method of presenting the truth; and the laborer for God is to
study carefully the best methods, that he may not arouse prejudice
or combativeness. This is where some have failed. By following
their natural inclinations, they have closed doors through which they
might, by a different method of labor, have found access to hearts, and
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through them to other hearts.
God’s workmen must be many-sided men; that is, they must have
breadth of character. They are not to be one-idea men, stereotyped
in their manner of working, unable to see that their advocacy of truth
must vary with the class of people among whom they work and the
circumstances they have to meet.
There is delicate work for the minister to do as he meets with
alienation, bitterness, and opposition. More than others, he needs
that wisdom which “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and
without hypocrisy.” [
James 3:17
.] As the dew and the still showers fall
gently upon withering plants, so his words are to fall gently when he
proclaims the truth. He is to win souls, not to repulse them. He is to
study to be skilful when there are no rules to meet the case.
Many souls have been turned in the wrong direction, and thus lost
to the cause of God, by a lack of skill and wisdom on the part of the
worker. Tact and good judgment increase the usefulness of the laborer
a hundred-fold. If he will speak the right words at the right time, and