Be gentle unto all men, apt to teach .... in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. 2 Tim. 2:24, 25.

Wild animals may rave and roar, but it is the little lambs that draw children to the farmyard. We as Adventists must not strive. The whole truth of God given to us is intended to make people whole, not simply to satisfy their sense of logic. How can we lead men to accept the truth while conveying the impression that we are at odds with them, that we cannot love them until they change their minds?

"Be gentle unto all men." There is no real success in communicating the truth by the manifestation of any other spirit. All the angry disputes on religion are like so many winds and waves upon a stormy sea that interrupt and endanger the progress of the ship. Not the religious subject matter makes the difference in communicating the truth, but the spirit of the teacher, the representative of Jesus Christ.

"In meekness"—humility must mark our bearing. We communicate not only ideas on truth but all those qualities of Christ as well: love, patience, humility, gentleness, long-suffering. The work of the "loud cry," calling upon Christians in other religious bodies to come out from among them, is not to be through strife, but through us as living representatives of Jesus Christ. The great error of which churches and teachers have been guilty through the centuries has been the thrusting of religious ideas and opinions into greater prominence than Jesus Christ and His righteous and moral character.

To advance the cause of the third angel's message, two things are necessary: an appeal to the intellect by soundness in teaching the truth, and an appeal to men's hearts in love. How is any spiritual message really proved? Not by intellect and logic alone, but by the spirit of Jesus. We must not only persuade men's minds to receive the truth but actually communicate the very spirit of our Lord. These two together make up the distinctiveness of our message. The touch of Christ on our hearts and His love shining forth from us, together with a clear knowledge of the Word of God, is the only way to be a messenger of God's grace.