"I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto Me" (John 12:22).

These words of our Lord were uttered after His last journey to Jerusalem, and at the close of His triumphant entry into that city which was so soon to echo with the cries of, "Away with Him; away with Him; crucify Him!"There is a great stir amongst the people. His own disciples, their fears for the time removed, boldly avowed their allegiance, and vied with one another in paying special honors to Him who made His meek yet triumphant entry into the city according to the prophet.

The Gentiles, too, seemed to respond. There were certain Greeks at the feast who approached the disciples with a view to being introduced into the presence of Him who apparently was so soon to take His great power and reign, to be recognized as Son of David and King of Israel. "Sir, we would see Jesus," they say, and the disciples, short-sighted as usual, were, no doubt, delighted at the thought of this special and marked honor to be paid to their blessed Master. But how different were our Lord's thoughts from even those of devotion to Himself! Well did He know that neither Jew nor Greek could be truly drawn to Him by any manifestation of external power. It was not enough to have the acclaim of the populace. There must be a deeper work if there would be true fruit for God, and so He gives His answer, unsatisfactory indeed to nature, and enigmatic even to faith, save where intelligent:"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." There was only one way in which He could truly have fruit for His Father's and His own joy. He, the true Corn of wheat, must enter into death, and in resurrection alone could He have that clustering about Him of a company of redeemed people whose life was derived from Himself, who would be the fruitage of that sowing.

And so he goes on without hesitation to speak of the path of suffering and anguish which was before Him. His soul was troubled, the hour had come which had cast its dark shadow upon His whole previous life; and yet as He says, it was the hour for which He had come into the world. Should He ask now to be spared from it, that the cup might be removed? Nay, rather, He will ask, as He had ever said, that the Father's glory alone be maintained. God responds from heaven:" I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

But how incapable of understanding is the heart of the natural man! Some thought that this voice from heaven was nothing more than thunder, and others that perhaps an angel had spoken to the Lord. None realized that this was a divine witness for their sakes, that they might be induced to give up their indifference to Christ and bow the heart to Him.

But all this indifference and failure to understand but emphasizes the absolute necessity of that cross to which He was so patiently going. It was there alone that the prince of the world could be judged and cast out; and if, on the one hand, the world would there receive its judgment, on the other, too, there would be an attraction furnished which would draw weary and heavy laden souls from wherever they might be. " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Blessed Jesus, how true it is that not even that glory, not even visible or audible manifestations of the presence and approval of God could effectually draw sinners to Thee! Thou must be lifted up, rejected by the earth, refused, as it were, by heaven, lifted up between earth and heaven, and there in the anguish of Thine atoning death, Thou didst furnish the point of attraction where the heart of God meets the guiltiest sinner and gives peace and blessing forevermore.

How we, dear fellow believer, have been drawn to our Lord by this wondrous Cross! We were not driven. No law could drive; no mere fear could impel truly and intelligently to rest upon Christ; but there, when we saw that love in all its immeasurable fulness, when we saw the provision made by a righteous God for the guiltiest and most defiled soul, we were drawn to the arms of One to whom we should give rest and delight, as He gave us rest and peace.

" I will draw all men unto Me! " What a company have been drawn of all classes, from the highest and most self-righteous of men, who could say that as touching the law they were blameless, to the most degraded and sinful! Here, Paul finds his place along side of her of Sychar, and the royal David, and Peter with his denial, and the woman who was a sinner-all find one powerful and effectual attraction] to the same blessed bosom of love.

Nor has the Cross lost its power, nor can it ever lose it. In this day of man's complacency it still remains the same. It is that which we are to confess, concerning which we are to bear witness. In all our private testimony, in all our public preaching, it is to be the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That will draw;-it will draw men from their counting-houses and sinners from their sins. It is the only thing that will draw. And how blessed it is to think that it is because of that Cross, our Lord Jesus-as He comes from glory to take His redeemed home to Himself-will attract them from earth! Could anything hold us here when we hear that glad shout from the sky? Are we not, indeed, as we think of it, in haste to be gone to Him whose heart longs to have us there? How true it is that He draws unto Himself!

Would that we might say a word to touch the heart of the young Christian entering upon the life down here, and, forgetting that there is nothing in earth that can truly satisfy is often sorely tempted to turn aside into devious ways. Oh, let Christ so attract the soul by His cross, that that which is the badge of His rejection be the badge of our rejection. Let it be more than that. Let it be the attraction which allures us out of the world, away from its thoughts, its purposes, its desires-away from any unhallowed association which would stain our white garments. Let the cross of our Lord Jesus do its holy work, and we will indeed be a people for Himself.

"O, draw me, Saviour, after Thee,
That I may run and never tire."