By the late WILLIAM GADSBY, of Manchester.
WITH what matchless, graceful, and endearing language He invites sinners to come unto Him and have rest! And how pregnant with grace and mercy are the invitations that fall from His heavenly lips! Hear Him, ye poor, guilty, ruined, and helpless sinners; hear Him, and rejoice: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Mark well, the Lord does not say, Come unto Me, all ye that are pious and holy; nor all ye that are in possession of so many good dispositions, and are in a heavenly frame of mind; nor all ye who have conquered the corruptions of your evil nature. Had this been the case, you might justly have despaired of a hearty reception. But it is rich grace that is poured into, and flows from, His precious lips.
The characters invited are such as labor under, and are heavy laden with, a sense of guilt, wrath, and misery, destitute of anything whatever to recommend them to His favor, unless sin be a recommendation, for which sin they are overwhelmed. Poor, guilty conscience! here is a hearty welcome to your sin-sick soul. Though your sins stare you in the face like mountains, and threaten you with everlasting destruction; though your conscience be as foul as hell, and you feel yourself nothing but a mass of uncleanness, the scum of the earth, and a pest to society, unable to do anything but add sin to sin, experiencing daily that all your vows and promises to forsake sin and become holy prove abortive, and only aggravate your guilt: though this be the case with you, into you is the word of this salvation sent!
It is you, ye poor, forlorn, undone, ruined souls! it is you that the dear Redeemer so freely invites to come unto Him, and have rest. Were anything left for you to do, as a necessary qualification for the reception of Christ, or as a recommendation to Him, you might eternally despair; nor would salvation, under such circumstances, be entirely of grace. But it is grace that is poured into His lips, and He as freely pours it out, and welcomes sinners, without money or price, worth or worthiness, to come unto, rest upon, and trust in Him. And when the Holy Ghost makes this grace manifest in the conscience, the sinner is brought in reality to know that salvation is of grace, and with pleasure to join the apostle in saying, “By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
A self-righteous principle is one of the greatest bars in the way of our peace. It appears to reason quite absurd to believe in Christ for salvation while we feel ourselves such vile sinners. We think we must be holy, but how to get at this holiness we know not; and to come to Christ, and to venture entirely upon Him, we dare not. And if we hear the blessed Gospel freely preached, and Jesus set forth as a complete Saviour, able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, we are ready to conclude that this may be true for such and such people. but not for us. “If I could but do this or the other good thing, I should have hope. If I were but like such a one, I should not despair. Their case appears as clear as the noonday, but mine is of a very singular nature. I am more vile than anyone. I find things in and about me that I dare not mention to the dearest friend I have—things that others know nothing of. And I am quite unable to see how God can be just in saving such a vile wretch as I.”
Thus unbelief and carnal reason operate upon our self-righteous principle, and all unite to keep us in bondage, and to hide the glory and beauty of Christ from our view. When the sinner is thus entangled, there he is, and there he must be, till free grace from the heart and lips of Christ sweeps away this refuge of lies, and the blessed Spirit reveals Christ to the soul as the only hope; and causes the sinner, as a guilty, lost, and undone wretch, to rest entirely on Christ.