“If eloquence is measured by its effect upon an audience, and not by its balanced sentences and cumulative periods, then this is eloquence of the highest sort.  In sheer persuasiveness Mr. Moody has few equals, and rugged as his preaching may seem to some, there is in it a pathos of a quality which few orators have ever reached, and an appealing tenderness which not only wholly redeems it, but raises it, not unseldom, almost to sublimity.”

MOODY

1837—­1899

What think ye of Christ?[1]

[Footnote 1:  By permission of the Fleming H. Revell Company, owners of copyright.]

What think ye of Christ?—­Matt, xxii., 42.

I suppose there is no one here who has not thought more or less about Christ.  You have heard about Him, and read about Him, and heard men preach about Him.  For eighteen hundred years men have been talking about Him and thinking about Him; and some have their minds made up about who He is, and doubtless some have not.  And altho all these years have rolled away, this question comes up, addresst to each of us, to-day, “What think ye of Christ?”

I do not know why it should not be thought a proper question for one man to put to another.  If I were to ask you what you think of any of your prominent men, you would already have your mind made up about him.  If I were to ask you what you thought of your noble queen, you would speak right out and tell me your opinion in a minute.

If I were to ask about your prime minister, you would tell me freely what you had for or against him.  And why should not people make up their minds about the Lord Jesus Christ, and take their stand for or against Him?  If you think well of Him, why not speak well of Him and range yourselves on His side?  And if you think ill of Him, and believe Him to be an impostor, and that He did not die to save the world, why not lift up your voice and say you are against Him?  It would be a happy day for Christianity if men would just take sides—­if we could know positively who is really for Him and who is against Him.

It is of very little importance what the world thinks of any one else.  The queen and the statesman, the peers and the princes, must soon be gone.  Yes; it matters little, comparatively, what we think of them.  Their lives can only interest a few; but every living soul on the face of the earth is concerned with this Man.  The question for the world is, “What think ye of Christ?”

I do not ask you what you think of the Established Church, or of the Presbyterians, or the Baptists, or the Roman Catholics; I do not ask you what you think of this minister or that, of this doctrine or that; but I want to ask you what you think of the living person of Christ?