* Louise Cliancller Moullou.
266 CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ELECTION
all ; it is to come to Him with open heart, accepting Him as He claims to be ; it is to meet the eye of a present, living Christ, who knows what is in man, and to say to Him, " I am Thine, Thine most gladly, Thine for evermore."
If An Irish boy was asked what was meant by saving faith. " G-rasping Christ with the heart," said he. The truest answer possible. And faith is only another word for coming. The man who grasps Christ with the heart, " comes." ^
3. The one essential in coming is the desire to come. Christ pledges His gift to readiness of heart. As to the open eye the light pours in, and to the listening ear the music enters, so to the longing heart Christ gives the pardon and the purity and the peace which, though it has not shaped its need into those words, are in reality the gifts for which it yearns. The value of a photographic plate consists not in v>^hat it is, but in its readiness to receive the impression when the shutter of the camera is opened and the light streams in. If a mere piece of common glass were there instead of the plate, the light might shine on it for ever and no impression would be made; it is the prepared plate that receives the impression which the light conveys. So, too, it is the prepared soul that receives the gift of Christ. The one thing that the Saviour asks for is readiness, willingness, some movement of the life towards Him ; if there is that within us we need not fear that Christ, who is light, will fail to bring His blessing to us or to leave His mark on us. Everything is possible to us if we are open to the influence of God. What is it that we want Christ to do for us ? Is it to cleanse away our sin ? He points us to His cross. Do we want rest from an accusing conscience and from the weary load of loneliness ? " Come unto me," He says, " and I will give you rest." Is what is deepest in us still unsatisfied, although we have been seeking many fountains and drinking from many cups ? " He that believeth on me shall never thirst."
^ At one critical time during this period of soul-conflict he stated in one of his addresses that the question, " Believe ye that I am able to do this ? " was made a word of life to him. He writes : " I was very near death ; I was almost despairing. The only thing that kept my head above water was the promise,
^ E. D. Dickinson.
ST. JOHN VI. 37 267
' Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' I repeated it again and again, and prayed very earnestly, when the word came to me with such power, and with such a rebuke, ' Believe ye that I am able to do this ? ' He was able, and I believed Him, and He did it." 1
(1) Unfitness is no harrier to coming. — It is strange how people are inclined to wait a little, to try to prepare themselves for Christ ! They know how unlike Him they are, and how unfit they are for His presence and service ; so, as a youth who waits awhile to prepare himself for some important examination, or as a soldier waits awhile to perfect himself in drill for some promotion — so they think they can wait. But their waiting never changes their nature or renews their heart. For their case is rather like that of those who suffer from a malignant disease. No amount of waiting or even of attention to the outward signs of the disease is of any avail, and the time spent over that but increases the danger ; for the disorder is within, the whole system is poisoned and needs renewing, and it is to save their life that they at once put them- selves in the hands of a qualified physician. Christ Jesus is the qualified physician, and His blood is a " full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world."
\ I have heard of a cavalier who lost his life because he stopped to curl his hair when Cromwell's soldiers were after him. Some of you may laugh at the man's foolishness ; but that is all that your talk about fitness is. What is all your fitness but the curling of your hair when you are in imminent danger of losing your soul? Yt/ ir fitness is nothing to Christ. liemember the hymn —
Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream; All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.^
(2) Emptiness and not fulness is required. — Before a building is erected it is necessary to excavate for a foundation, which involves the removal of much that seems important. And it is literally true that Christ wants not our fulness but our emptiness, that He may " build us up in our most holy faith." We think ourselves
* K. Moody-Stuart, Brmvnlow Norths 41. * 0. H. Spurgeon.