in all times, to thousands of troubled, hardworked, weary, afflicted hearts.. This is what has made it precious to thousands who were wearied with the burden of their sins, and longed to be made righteous and good; and knew bitterly well that they could not make themselves good, but that God alone could do that; and so longed to come to God, that they might be made good: but did not know whether they might come or not; or whether if they came God would receive them, and help them, and convert them. This message it is, which has made the text an evangelical prophecy, to be fulfilled only in Christ—a message which tells men of a God who says, Come. a God whom Moses' law, saying merely, 'Thou shalt not,' did not reveal to us, divine and admirable as it was, and is, and ever will be. Of a God whom natural religion, such as even the heathen, St. Paul says, may gain from studying God's works in this wonderful world around us-of a God, I say, whom natural religion does not reveal to us, divine and admirable as it is. But of a God who was

Of

revealed, step by step, to the Psalmists and the Prophets, more and more clearly as the years went on; of a God who was fully and utterly revealed, not merely by, but in Jesus Christ our Lord, who was himself that God, very God of very God begotten, being the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person; whose message and call, from the first day of his ministry to his glorious ascension, was, Come.

Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you.

Come unto me, and take my yoke on you: for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.

All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me. And he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Nay, the very words of this prophecy Christ took to himself again and again, speaking of himself as the fountain of life, health, and light; when he stood and cried, saying, If

any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink.

Come unto me, that ye may have life, is the message of Jesus Christ, both God and man. Come, that you may have forgiveness of your sins; come, that you may have the Holy Spirit, by which you may sin no more, but live the life of the Spirit, the everlasting life of goodness, by which the spirits of just men, and angels, and archangels, live for ever before God.

And what says St. Paul? See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.

Yes. The goodness of God, the condescension of God, instead of making it more easy for sinners to escape, makes it, if possible, more difficult. There are those who fancy that because God is merciful-because it is written in this very chapter, Let a man return to the Lord, and he will have mercy; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon,-that therefore God is indulgent, and will overlook their sins;

forgetting that in the verse before it is said, Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and then—but not till then-let him return to God, to be received with compassion and forgiveness.

Too many know not, as St. Paul says, that the goodness of God leads men, not to sin freely and carelessly without fear of punishment, but leads them to repentance. And yet do not our own hearts and consciences tell us that it is so? That it is more base, and more presumptuous likewise, to turn away from one who speaks with love, than one who speaks with sternness; from one who calls us to come to him, with boundless condescension, than from one who bids us stand afar off and tremble?

Those Jews of old, when they refused to hear God speaking in the thunders of Sinai, committed folly. We, if we refuse to hear God speaking in the tender words of Jesus crucified for us, commit an equal folly: but we commit baseness and ingratitude likewise. They rebelled against a master: we rebel against a father.

But though we deny him, he cannot deny himself. We may be false to him, false to our better selves, false to our baptismal vows: but he cannot be false. He cannot change. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. What he said on earth, that he says eternally in heaven: If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.

Eternally, and for ever, in heaven, says St. John, Christ says, and is, and does, what Isaiah prophesied that he would say, and be, and do -I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the Bride (his Spirit and his Church) say, Come. And let him that is athirst, Come: and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. For ever he calls to every anxious soul, every afflicted soul, every weary soul, every discontented soul, to every man who is ashamed of himself, and angry with himself, and longs to live a soberer, gentler, nobler, purer, truer, more useful life-Come. Let him who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, come to the waters; and he that hath no