_He Came_.
The nature of the whole work of our redemption is made manifest by the one
fact--_He really came_. His everlasting love, His infinite
compassion, His all-embracing purpose were from eternity; but we only got
to know of it all because _He came_. If He had contented Himself with
sending messages or highly-placed messengers, or even with making
occasional and wonderful excursions of Divine revelation, man would, no
doubt, have been greatly attracted, and perhaps even helped somewhat in
his tremendous conflict with evil; yet he might never have been subdued in
will, he might never have been touched and won back to God; he might never
have been brought down from his pride to cry out, "My Lord and my God."
No, it was _His coming to us_ that wrought conviction of sin, and
then conviction of the truth in our hearts.
He came Himself.
There is something very wonderful in this principle of _contact_ as
illustrated by the life of Jesus. Just as to save the human race He felt
it necessary to come into it, and clothe Himself with its nature and
conform Himself to its natural laws, so all the way through His earthly
journey He was constantly seeking to _come into touch_ with the
people He desired to bless. He touched the sick, He fed the hungry, He
placed His fingers on the blind eyes, and put them upon the ears of the
deaf, and touched with them the tongue of the dumb. He took the ruler's
dead daughter "by the hand, and the maid arose." He lifted the little
children up into His arms, and blessed them; He stretched forth His hand
to sinking Peter; He stood close by the foul-smelling body of the dead
Lazarus; He took the bread, and with His own hands brake it, and gave it
to His disciples at that last farewell meal. He even took poor Thomas's
trembling hand, and guided it to the prints in His hands and the wounds in
His side.
Yes, indeed, it is written large, in every part of His life, that He
really came, and that He came very near to lost and suffering men.
Is there not a lesson here for us, my comrade? As He is in the world, so
are we. This principle in His life was not by accident or by chance, it
was an essential qualification of His nature for the work entrusted to
Him. It is a necessary qualification for those who are called to carry on
that work.
Is this, then, the impression you are able to give to those among whom you
labour: that you have come to them in very truth; that in mind and soul,
in hand and heart, you are seeking to come into the closest contact of
love and sympathy with them, especially with those who most need you?
Oh, aim at this! Do not for your own sake, as well as for your Master's,
move about amid your own people, or among those to whom God and The Army
have given you entrance, as one who has little in common with them, who
does not know them, who does not feel with them. Go into their houses, put
your hand sometimes to their burdens, take a share in their toils, nurse
their sick, weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice.
Make them feel that it is your own religion, rather than The Army system,
that has made you come to them. Let them see by your sympathy and kindness
that love is the over-mastering influence in your life, the influence that
has brought you to them. Compel them to turn to you as a warm-hearted
unselfish example of the truths you preach. Let them feel that you are
indeed come from God to take them by the hand, as far as may be, and lead
them through this Vale of Tears to the City of Light and Rest.