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 excelsior’s of the day lift no soul higher than earth.
And what lever is it with which you would raise the saints’ souls 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, in all plainness, you are ignorant of Him altogether.
When we see Thee as the Victim,
Nailed to the accursed tree,
For our guilt and folly stricken,
All our judgment borne by Thee,
Lord, we own, with hearts adoring,
Thou hast washed us in Thy blood:
Glory, glory everlasting
Be to Thee Thou Lamb of God!