WHY MEN NEGLECT TO COME TO CHRIST.
The grand reason with some is, that they are self-righteous. They do not need such a Physician. They are good enough already. He is just the help that other people need; their case is altogether different. Perhaps they have not committed a sin, no, not even a fault for twenty or even forty years. Such persons have much to say of holiness, but they always bring self forward as the prominent object for us to admire, and leave Jesus in the back ground. They suppose, indeed, that he dwells in their hearts. Alas for the mistake! They are so full of self that there is no room in the temple of their hearts for Christ. They have no poverty of spirit, for they are rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. Self-righteousness is one of the worst forms of backsliding. Other wanderers from God may be recovered. But these probably can never be reached. They have that self-sufficiency which prevents their ever seeking Christ as the Saviour of sinful men. Other men are hindered from coming to Christ by the fact that they must, in doing it, make an eternal surrender of their sins, and an unreserved surrender of themselves to God. The cross of Christ looks to them very humiliating and very painful. The pleasures of sin seem to them very desirable. They would be very glad of Christ if they could take the world and the more respectable of their sins along with them. In fact they think that sometime, but not to-day, they will certainly yield all to him. So procrastination steals their time till the Spirit of God leaves them, and death closes the scene.