The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 265

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.”—Ibid., sermon 35.
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 gathered
into the kingdom of God. His life presents a lesson of priceless worth
to every Christian. Would that the faith and humility, the untiring zeal,
self-sacrifice, and devotion of this servant of Christ might be reflected in
the churches of today!

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