|
"Might He not have brought to bear on His followers such an enormous weight of evidence that they would have been mentally unable to acquiesce in anything else but His will, or in any other way but His way ?
"lt. is most impressive to notice that Jesus never crushed men's minds by the sheer weight of argument, which they had no trained faculty to disentangle or co-ordinate with the rest of their mental background. He led them quietly step by step, so that the mind could always look back and see the steps it had taken. It is the difference between being whirled into a new experience by an escalator and walking quietly upstairs....
"Consider, fourthly, the method of appealing to emotion. Emotion is a much misunderstood thing. To some people it is a thing to be dreaded and distrusted. Do not let us despise it. No venture of the soul is made without it. A man cannot fall in love with Christ (which is what being a Christian means) without emotion, any more than he can fall in love with his beloved without emotion.
"Jesus used emotion again and again. Surely one cannot read His words without being stirred to the very depths. It seems to me that the point is that He never asked a man to make a decision while his personality was swept by emotional force.
"If, in cooler moments, intellect and will confirmed emotional desire, then a man was won; but if a man is only won emotionally, then only a third of his personality is captured, and when his emotion cools, his allegiance will die with it.
"That is why Jesus sent that impulsive disciple home to think about his desire to follow, and that is why it seems to me a mistake, if when men's emotions are roused, they are swept into some inquiry-room and required, then and there, to make some great decision. Would it not be better to wait until intellect and will confirm emotional desire and the whole man were won for God, even if the number of decision-cards signed were less ?
" I have been deeply impressed by the way in which Jesus might have won the young ruler by an appeal on the emotional side--Jesus' arm through his, and such a word as, "Don't turn away like that," and the thing was done.
"When Judas shuffled across the floor of the Upper Room to do his dreadful deed, Jesus, by a single sentence appealing to the emotion of pity, might have saved both Himself and Judas, but in both cases Jesus let men go.
"He used emotion--for instance, He spoke words which kindled fear as no other words can kindle that emotion--but, out of a divine respect for human personality, He never pressed for decision while emotion was at its height, nor coerced a submission by an appeal to admiration, or pity, or fear.
"All this has, as I suggested, a twofold meaning. First, the very nature of God is revealed, for "he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." God might use physical force. He might bring His angels and sweep through our cities until every man was beaten to his knees. God could use psychic force.
"We who have prayed that we might see His face should remember that one of these days He might conceivably answer our prayer, and, in the splendor of that tremendous Presence, what would be left of our faculty for judgment, and decision, and choice ? We should be swept into allegiance.
"God could use mental force. He could bring evidence of His reality and power which would break down the mind by the weight of its truth. One of the most amazing signs of His respect for our personality lies in the fact that He has put us in a world in which the evidence against Him is far more obvious than the evidence in His favor.
"God might use emotional power. If a modern evangelist can herd people by the hundred into an inquiry-room, could not God Himself sweep our being with the fires of an emotion that would break down all our resistance ?
"But let us note, secondly, that we must not call God cold and distant; we must not complain that He does not vindicate Himself sufficiently, when His restraint is a sign of His very respect for our personality. He has eschewed all ways of force pressed to excess in order that our choice of His way may be wholly our own.
"I have seen a picture called "Victory" which shows a hill-top, a standard floating proudly from a flag-staff, a captain standing with uplifted sword among the remnant of his followers, and the bodies of the beaten enemy lying around.
"Many would like to picture in their minds the victory of God like that. They think of Him with all His enemies under His feet. I doubt if ever they will be. For in the heaven of heavens they will be standing by His side, with you and me, captured, bound, broken down--by a willing response to love.
"His victory is seen on another hill-top, on which is erected no proud standard floating in
|
|
