amount of books about it, or consulting any number of human counsellors. Take for to-day only one indication of what those steps were. 'Who went about doing good." Do your steps correspond with that? It is not, went about doing no harm,' but actively and positively doing good.' Oh, dear friends, they are 'blessed' steps in all senses of the word! For His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace.* Once fairly and fully entered, the paradox is always solved, the self-denial is lost in the greater joy of pleasing. Him, the cross becomes a sceptre in the hand of His 'kings and priests." Then you shall continue following the Lord your God." And the end of the following is, that where I am, there shall also My servant be. 1 Acts x. 38. 4 Phil. iii. 7. John xii. 26; Rev. xiv. 4. TWENTY-FIRST DAY. Coming with Jesus. 'Come with Me.'-CANT. iv. 8. COME away" is not all that the Lord Jesus has to say to us. 'Come unto Me" and 'Come after Me" only lead up to the even more gracious invitation, Come with Me." 'Ye see your calling;" it is nothing less than to come with Jesus. The enviable privilege of the twelve whom Jesus ordained that they should be with Him," is freely offered to you. Will you avail yourself of it? Will you come with Jesus, walking with Him' from this day every step of the way? Will you accept Him as the Guide with whom you will go, the Friend with whom you will commune by the way? It will be no dreamy or nominal coming with Him, if only you 1 Cant. ii. 1o. 2 Matt. xi. 28. 51 Cor. i. 26. 3 Matt. xvi. 24. • Mark iii. 14. 8 John vi. 68; Ex. xxxiii. 14. are willing to come. real in all respects. 2 You will find it very You can never be so really always with any earthly friend as you can be with Jesus, and as you will be, if you accept the invitation. For there are two sides to that 'with.' If you will but come with Him, He will come unto you and abide with you. Your natural fear lest, even when you consent to come to be with Him, you might not remain with Him, is met and completely settled by His promise, I will never leave thee.' And of course, if He never leaves you, you will always be with Him. And if He has said that, of course He will do it. So do not let that objection come up again! 93 It is a very common experience in great things and small, that the person or thing we most want is not there just when we most want him or it. Never shall we have to complain of this as to the prom. ised perpetual presence of our Lord; for He says, 'I will be with him in trouble." When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee." And in the deepest need of all, in the valley of the shadow of death, the soul that has yielded 1 Prov. xviii. 24. 4 Num. xxiii. 19. Isa. xliii. 2. 2 John xiv. 23. 3 Heb. xiii. 5. 6 Ps. xci. 15. to the present call will be able to say, Thou art with me!" 4 I do not think we consider enough how we disappoint the love of Jesus when we refuse to come with Him." For He does truly and literally desire us to be with. Him. Would He have made it the very climax of His great Prayer, representing it as the very culmination of His own rest and glory, that His people should be with Him, if He did not so very much care about it, and was only seeking and saving us out of bare pity? No, it was in His love as well as in His pity that He redeemed us! And love craves nearness. This is the very thing that differences love from the lesser glow of mere pity, or kindness, whatever their degrees or combinations. The Lord Jesus would not say, 'Come with Me,' if He did not feel towards us something far beyond any degree of pity and kindness. It is the Royal Invitation of His kingly love. 5 But now, what are you going to do about it? Hearing it, and thinking it very gracious, and all that, is not enough. You must come to a point about it. You must give as definite an answer to this as mere common courtesy demands to any 1 Ps. xxiii. 4. John xvii. 24. 2 Luke xiii. 34. 3 Cant. v. 2. I earthly invitation. Giving no answer is an acknowledged insult. Will you treat the King thus? And if not, what shall your answer be? You must give it yourself. Christ Himself is waiting for it.' There is a beautiful type' which tells us how a maiden was chosen to be the bride of the son of a mighty prince" in a faroff land. She was to answer for herself about it, and so they said, We will call the damsel and enquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah, and said, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. 94 Shall this be your answer to-day? 1 John vi. 67. 2 Gen. xxiv. 4 Gen. xxiv. 57, 58. |