268 CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ELECTION
full, and are reluctant to part with anything; whereas we are " poor " — destitute of everything that is necessary to appear before God with ; w© are " wretched," being altogether out of harmony with the eternal joys of heaven ; and we are " blind " to our actual condition, to our own welfare, and even to the salvation so freely provided and so fully revealed by Christ our Saviour, till the eyes of our understanding are opened, and we are led to see and desire the many things we need. And the faith that saves is that which takes us out of ourselves, where there is nothing, to Christ, where there is fulness for all we need — purity, peace, and joy, " without money and without price."
From all thou boldest precious, for one hour
Arise and come away, And let the calling Voice be heard in power;
Desert thyself to-day; If with thy Lord for once thou turn aside. With Him thou'lt fain abide.^
4. The coming is. a personal coming to a personal Saviour. — How personal the text is concerning both the one coming and the One to whom he is to come : " him that cometh to me." That is the long and the short of the whole matter, its Alpha and Omega, its beginning and its end ; there must be a personal coming to the personal Christ. It will not suffice for us to come to Christ's doctrines. We must, of course, believe what He taught ; but believing His teaching will not save us unless we come to Him. It will not be enough merely to come to Christ's precepts, and to try to practise them, — an utterly impossible task for our own unaided strength ; we must first come to Christ, and then, when we trust in Him for salvation, His gracious Spirit will " take of the things of Christ, and shew them unto " us.
In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea The gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow Tliee.^
»J. E. A. Brown. > Whittier.
ST. JOHN VI. n 269
III.
Christ's Part. **I will in no wise cast out."
1. Christ's accessibility. — " Jesus never slept in a walled town " is the striking remark of a literary writer. There never lived so open a man, so accessible always to all. Sitting at the well of Sychar, and talldng freely to the first comer; receiving Nicodemus by night; listening to the Syro-Phoanician mother, who breaks through His concealment ; preaching to the five thousand, who disturb His retirement, — He is the property of every man that wants Him, and leaves us an example to follow His steps.
2. Chrisfs longing for response. — " I once knew a mother," says Canon Duncan, " who had a son who suffered from paralysis of the brain. Yet, how she loved and cared for him ! But the cause of her great grief was this ; she said : ' I have nursed him from childhood, cleansed, fed, and clothed him, watched over him and supplied his every want, tried to please him, and to teach him little things, and now, though in years he is a man, yet he does not even know me, and shows no return of my love, but just lies there to eat and drink and sleep ! And I feel that I cannot go on ; I am just longing for some recognition — some response to my lifelong love and care ! " How many are there, though not afflicted like that son, who nevertheless treat their God and Saviour much the same ! He sacrificed His very life for them ; fed, clothed, and cared for them day by day ; and has called them by His providence, by His word, and by every token of love, and yet they give no response.
^ He utters this word Himself, that, however long men may neglect it, however long it may be that they see and hear, and yet believe Him not, when they do finally come, He cannot, and will not, and must not cast them away.^
It is the greatness of Thy love, dear Lord, that we would celebrate With sevenfold powers. Our love at best is cold and poor, at best unseemly for Thy state, This best of ours.
* Schlcierinacher,
270 CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ELECTION
Creatures that die, we yet are such as Thine own hands deigned to create :
We frail as flowers, We bitter bondslaves ransomed at a price incomparably great
To grace Heaven's bowers.
Thou callest : " Come at once " — and still Thou callest us : "Come late, tho' late "— (The moments fly) — " Come, every one that thirsteth, come — Come prove Me, knocking at My gate" — (Some souls draw nigh !) — " Come thou who waiting seekest Me — Come thou for whom I seek and wait" — (Why will we die ?)— " Come and repent : come and amend : come joy the joys unsatiate " — — (Christ passeth by . . .) — Lord, pass not by — I come — and I — and I. Amen.^