272 The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan
[ 264 ] kiss?’ It is no other than betraying Him with a kiss, to talk of His blood, and take away His crown; to set light by any part of His law, under pretense of advancing His gospel. Nor indeed can any one escape this charge, who preaches faith in any such a manner as either directly or indirectly tends to set aside any branch of obedience: who preaches Christ so as to disannul, or weaken in any wise, the least of the commandments of God.” 381
To those who urged that“ the preaching of the gospel answers all the ends of the law,” Wesley replied:“ This we utterly deny. It does not answer the very first end of the law, namely, the convincing men of sin, the awakening those who are still asleep on the brink of hell.” The apostle Paul declares that“ by the law is the knowledge of sin;”“ and not until man is convicted of sin, will he truly feel his need of the atoning blood of Christ....‘ They that be whole,’ as our Lord Himself observes,‘ need not a physician, but they that are sick.’ It is absurd, therefore, to offer a physician to them that are whole, or that at least imagine themselves so to be. You are first to convince them that they are sick; otherwise they will not thank you for your labor. It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose heart is whole, having never yet been broken.” 382
Thus while preaching the gospel of the grace of God, Wesley, like his Master, sought to“ magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Faithfully did he accomplish the work given him of God, and glorious were the results which he was permitted to behold. At the close of his long life of more than fourscore years— above half a century spent in itinerant ministry— his avowed adherents numbered more than half a million souls. But the multitude that through his labors had been lifted from the ruin and degradation of sin to a higher and a purer life, and the number who by his teaching had attained to a deeper and richer experience, will never be known till the whole family of the redeemed shall be
381 Ibid. 382 Wesley ' s Works, Sermon 35.