January 7

Come, ye blessed of my Father. Matthew 25:34.

THE blessedness of the saints began by being made to feel their need of the Saviour here. It was the business of their life-they sought after him in his works-in his word-in his ways-in his dispensations-in his ordinances. They had been brought to such a state that they could say-

“I cannot live contented here,

Without some glimpses of thy face;

And heaven, without thy presence there,

Would be a dark and tiresome place.”

He will therefore fulfil all their desires after him completely, and say at last, “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” “Come!” Were they afar oft”? They were by nature without Christ, and thence their debasement and their misery. He knew that they stood in need of him, and that without him they would be undone for ever; and that he was the essence of their blessedness, and unless they came to him they never could be truly happy; and therefore his language always was, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out.” Thus their blessedness began. It was by intercourse; it was by coming to him; and how is it completed? Why, in the very same way. “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” As if he thought they could not be near enough to himself. “Come,” as if he had said, I saw you coming to my cross with your burden. I saw you coming to my throne with all your wants. I saw you coming to my house to behold my beauty and glory. I saw you coming to my table to behold my hands and my side. Oh, come now into my immediate presence; come now into my arms; come now into my bosom, and be for ever with the Lord.

Come, come! Do they hesitate?-are they ready to shrink back? There was a time when this was the case; not from anything like aversion, but from a sense of their own unworthiness. And if they are sensible of their unworthiness now, they will be a thousand times more sensible of it hereafter. Therefore are they represented as casting their crowns before him, as much as to say, by their abdication, that they are not worthy to wear them. But then they will have equal confidence in him. Then they will know no sin. They will know, and he will wish them to know, that they are as welcome as they are unworthy. Yes; no one has, in inviting a beloved friend to their house, or a child to their bosom, given either of them a thousandth part of the welcome with which he will receive his brethren when he shall say at the last “Come, ye blessed of my Father,” &c.