John 12:32

Magnets

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. John 12:32.

Most of you have seen a magnet. I remember that when I was at school, a good many of the boys had small steel magnets with which they went about picking up screws, metal, and a great many things. I envied most of all a fruebd who had what I thought was a wonderful box. It contained toy ducks and a little fishing-rod. At the end of the fishing-rod was a tiny magnet. The ducks are put into a tub of water, you hang the fishing-line near them, and they follow in whatever direction you care to lead them.

The story of how a magnet is made is very interesting. At one time it was just ordinary steel; but one day a coil of wire was twisted round it, an electric current was passed through the coil, the steel then became a magnet, and even when the current was stopped remained a magnet. The steel magnet can pass on its magnetism to other pieces of steel. If you stroke a needle with a steel magnet, the needle also becomes a magnet.

Magnetism is not something that we add to the steel. If that is so, why is every little piece of steel not a magnet? One writer has said that the simplest way to think of the subject is to picture every particle of which the steel is made as itself a tiny magnet. In a piece of ordinary steel there are millions of these tiny magnets, but they are all lying higgledy-piggledy, some pulling one way, and some another. They are, in fact, all at sixes and sevens, and the result is that they do no good. Ordinary steel attracts nothing. But if an electric current is sent through a coil of wire placed round the steel, all these little magnets within the steel are pulled into line with one another, and their combined efforts produce quite a strong attraction for any other piece of steel or iron.

Magnetism is a wonder, but a greater mystery is how one person attracts another.

Are there not certain of your companions who attract you in a very special manner, and you cannot tell how it is? You cannot keep away from them. You cannot explain it to yourself, but there it is. Something in them corresponds to something in you; they are magnets. It is very strange and wonderful.

Here is another strange thing. We want to be good; we see the beauty of the character of a companion who is always downright and kind at heart, and who never suggests bad thoughts to those about him. But evil also has its attractions. If the good pulls us in one direction, evil is never far off.

It is in the playground, at home, and in our own hearts. The conflict between good and evil is life's most tremendous problem. It is a case of the good drawing us from above and the evil holding us down. When boys and girls come thoroughly under the spell of good companions or friends they are kept from evil; but friends pass away, and with them passes away the magnetism that was about their living presence.

There is One, however, who lived nearly 2000 years ago. When He was on earth, He attracted just a few working men about Him. But as time went on His influence, instead of diminishing, increased. The story of how during these long years men and women, and boys and girls, have been drawn to Jesus Christ is one which has no parallel in history. You cannot find another story like it.

Boys and girls, we have all some good in us something that wants God. But we have evil in us too; and you know how we need to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The only thing that can help us is coming into contact with Him who can draw all men unto Him. All sorts of interests attract us: some are good, some evil. When Jesus Christ touches us, our longings and desires will be pulled into line with one another. We in turn shall become magnets magnets for good.