“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;
and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37
Now, poor sinner, upon whose head the beams of a
fiery law are darting; now, poor sinner, distressed in thy mind, guilty in thy
conscience, plagued with a thousand temptations, beset by innumerable doubts
and fears, canst thou not look up a little out of thy gloom and sadness, and
see that the eternal God is thy refuge? Dost thou not cleave to him with the
utmost of thy power, as being beaten out of every other? Hast thou not taken
hold of his strength that thou mayest make peace with him? Art thou not looking
to him?
And does he not say, “Look unto me and be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth?” He bids thee look at him as Moses bade the
Israelites look to the brazen serpent. Poor sinner, groaning under the weight
of thy transgression, he bids thee look to him. Has the blessed Lord, he into
whose lips grace was poured, not said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out?” Why should you not look? Why should you not come to him? Will he
cast you out? Do you not feel the secret drawings of his grace, movements upon
your heart which make you come often with strong crying and tears, with groans
and sighs, earnest, vehement, and continual supplications? What are these but
the inward teachings of God, as our Lord said, “It is written in the prophets,
And they shall be all taught of God.”
“Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath
learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” And do you not know that the Lord
himself said, that no man can come to him except the Father which hath sent him
draw him? These comings, therefore, of thy soul in earnest and vehement desire
are, according to his own testimony, from the special teachings and gracious
drawings of God in thee. Having made his dear Son to be the refuge of thy soul,
he is now drawing thee unto him that thou mayest find pardon and peace in him.
But perhaps you will say, “I am so sinful, so
guilty, I have been such a sinner, much worse than you can form any conception
of; and it is this which sinks me so low.” Art thou lower than brother Jonah
when he was in the whale’s belly, and, in his own feelings, in the belly of
hell? And yet what said he? “Yet will I look again toward thy holy temple.”
Canst thou not look again toward the holy temple? Is his mercy clean gone for
ever? So David felt and feared, but it was not so, for “his mercy endureth for
ever;” and that is a long and strong word. Look and live, look and live!
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