YE WILL NOT COME by T. E. Bowen

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 18, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 25.

“YE WILL NOT COME.”

By T. E. Bowen

AND ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” While these words were addressed by our Saviour to the unbelieving Jews, they contain, as well, both condemnation and comfort for all classes of people both before and since the days of Christ upon earth. The way to Jesus has been made plain from the fall of man in Eden unto the present time. During all these ages, men and women, to whatever depths of sin they may have sunken, could come to the sin-pardoning Christ. The invitation is extended to all. No one has been slighted. Altho many have been so occupied with the immediate things about them that they have failed to catch the gracious invitation, still all these ages the word has been sounding, “Come.”

The astonishment is that more do not come. Life, full and abundant, is found in the sinless One of Calvary; but men choose death rather than life. “Ye will not come.” Passing strange! When but for the coming, one may have life—eternal life—why is it that so few come? Heaven wonders, while the Satanic forces marshal more compactly, and urge on to ruin those to save whom the Son of God poured out His life.

There is but one way. By our own efforts we can not gain life. “I am the Door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Still men come not. The promise of life is upon condition that sinners come. God compels no one to come. He never has and never will. Yet all depends upon your coming unto Him with a heart full of sorrow and contrition for sin. This is the requirement. “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37.

Men may compass land and sea, perform the greatest feats known, acquire immense fortunes, even search the Scriptures diligently, thinking by so doing to merit favor with God; and yet by missing the one vital thing—coming to Christ—they gain nothing. Instead, all is worse than loss. Missing the Son of God,

they have missed all. The Jews recognized not the Messiah in the humble Man of Nazareth. They searched the Scriptures for eternal life; but they missed the life, because they missed the Son, in whom the Father had hidden eternal life. Among them walked One greater than Abraham, Solomon, or Moses; yet to them He was a common man. Then when it became more plain that He was the Promised One, they would not come unto Him for life. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5: 10-12.

This is not saying that a man who has eternal life may not go to sleep in Jesus. O, no! He may rest in the grave, but his life—this eternal life, hidden by God in His Son and handed down to us, which by faith the individual has made His own—is hidden in Christ, and whether he wakes or sleeps, it is safe in Him. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Col. 3: 3, 4.

Dear reader, have you heeded the gracious invitation of your Lord? Have you invited Him into your soul-temple? Have you hastened to Him with your load of grief, sin, and care? Have you recognized in Him your life? Is your life insured (you do not want your death insured) in Him? Have you believed God’s record of His Son? or are you making God a liar through unbelief? If you have not experienced rest from your sins, if you have not gone unto Him, hasten to go. Delay not. An enemy is pursuing, seeking your life. Out of Christ you are not safe one moment. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” T. E. BOWEN.