The following is an excerpt from a sermon preached by Reuben Archer Torrey in a message titled “THE GREAT ATTRACTION: THE UPLIFTED CHRIST”

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” John 12:32 (KJV)

“Notice in the fourth place, the words, ‘Unto Me.’  ‘I will draw all men unto Me.’  The Revised Version reads ‘Unto Myself,’ and that was just what Jesus said, ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.’  It is not a creed or a system of doctrine that Jesus draws men, but to a Person, to Himself.  That is what we need, a Person, Jesus Himself.  As He Himself once said, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28).  Creeds and confessions of faith are all right in their place, they are of great value; the organized church is of great value, it is indispensable, and it is the most important institution in the world today; society would soon go to rack and ruin without it.  We are all under solemn obligation to God and to our fellow-man to support the church and belong to it, but creeds and confessions of faith cannot save.  The church cannot save.  A Divine Person can save, Jesus Christ, and He alone. So He says,

‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men  unto Myself.’“