Come Down by T. E. BOWEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 13, 1910

Come Down

By T. E. BOWEN

T. E. BOWEN

The first words Jesus spoke to Zaccheus were, “Make haste, and come down.” It is quite probable that the same message would be given to many to-day, were Jesus to visit them. Many have climbed up, not into a sycamore tree,—which was perfectly proper for Zaccheus to do on this occasion,—but up on the judgment-seat. Here they sit passing judgment upon this brother and that sister, this move and that affair, within the home and without, inside the church and out, within the near neighborhood circle and a long distance beyond. Everybody and everything is measured and dissected and labeled as belonging to this class or that clique; set aside as a “pretty fair Christian,” with a “but;” or branded as an out-and-out hypocrite.

We all are bad enough; but these self-appointed censors of human thoughts and motives and actions do not help matters. It was the opposite spirit in which the Master met the publican sinner near Jericho. We have no record of Jesus preaching a sermon to Zaccheus, or denouncing him as a great sinner, or, in fact, that he said anything at all. It may have been his silence that won this sinner. Somehow this publican saw, in Jesus’ very look and attitude, a benevolence and kindness that spoke the forgiveness of his sins. Christ’s very bearing seemed to win him. When he saw the Lord, he desired to be like him. No doubt he had heard much of Jesus, but now that he had actually seen him, he needed no one to tell him that he bore no resemblance in character to the humble Galilean Teacher.

“Come down.” Yes, if you wish to be like the lowly Christ, come down. If you desire to help people, come down. You are out of place up there on the judgment-seat. That belongs to the Lord. It may seem different to you when he takes it, and you are compelled to give an account of yourself to him. That will be another phase in the judgment work,—a phase it might be well to think of occasionally now. We are all brethren, and One is our Master. We all have faults, some of us serious ones, no doubt; but the Lord has arranged a plan for dealing with them. If you are interested to know what it is, turn to Matt. 18: 15-20, and read it for yourself. The counsel is good, and should be heeded by all.

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, Like the wideness of the sea; There’s a kindness in his justice, Which is more than liberty.

“There’s no place where earthly sorrows Are more felt than up in heaven; There’s no place where earthly failings Have such kindly judgment given.

“But we make his love too narrow, By false limits of our own; And we magnify his strictness With a zeal he will not own.”

Takoma Park, D. C.