With what are you seeking to move those dull, heavy sinners heavenwards? You will never stir one of them an inch with aught else save the cross of Christ. Not all the army of morality, education, and reasoning will bring one soul out of the darkness of sin into the light of God’s glory. All the excelsiors of the day, lift no soul higher than the earth.
And what lever is it with which you raise the souls of God’s people above the world? Would you use a tool made out of the world? There is no power for practical godliness like the cross, and none at all apart from it. Leave out the cross, and what is Christ to you? It is the crucified Christ who is glorified, none other. And if you know Him not, as the one who died for sinners, you are surely ignorant of Him altogether.