Coming With Jesus
‘Come with Me.’—Cant. iv. 8.
‘COME away” is not all that the Lord Jesus has to say to us. ‘Come unto Me ‘* and ‘ Come after Me,’5 only lead up to the even more gracious invitation, ‘ Come with Me.’6
‘Ye see your calling;’7 it is nothing less than to come with Jesus. The enviable privilege of the twelve whom Jesus ordained ‘ that they should be with Him,’8 is freely offered to you. Will you avail yourself of it? Will you come with Jesus, walking with Him9 from this day every step of the way? Will you accept Him as the Guide with whom you will go, the Friend with whom you will commune by the way ?10 It will be no dreamy or nominal coming with Him, if only you are willing to come. You will find it very real in all respects.

I 1 Sam. xii. 14. * John xii. 26; Rev. xiv. 4. sCant. ii. 10.

* Matt. xi. 28. 5 Matt. xvl. 24. 6 2 Sam. xix. 33.
II Cor. i. 26. 8Markiii. 14. 9 Rev. iii. 4. 21. , 10 John vi. 68; Ex. xxxiii. 14.

You can never be so really always with any earthly friend as you can be with Jesus, and as you will be, if you accept the invitation.1 For there are two sides to that ‘with.’ If you will but come ‘with Him, He will come unto you and abide with you.2 Your natural fear lest, even when you consent to come to be with Him, you might not remain with Him, is met and completely settled by His promise, ‘I will never leave thee.” And of course if He never leaves you, you will always be with Him. And if He has said that, of course He will do it.4 So do not let that objection come up again!

It is a very common experience in great things and small, that the person or thing we most want is not there just when we most want him or it. Never shall we have to complain of this as to the promised perpetual presence of our Lord ;s for He says, ‘I will be with him in trouble.’6 ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.’7 And in the deepest need of all, in the valley of the shadow of death, the soul that has yielded to the present call will be able to say, ‘Thou art with me.’8
I do not think we consider enough how we disappoint the love of Jesus when we refuse to come with Him.’ For He does truly and literally desire us to be with Him.10 Would He have made it the very climax of His great Prayer, representing it as the very culmination of His own rest and glory that His people should be with Him,11 if He did not so very much care about it, and was only seeking and saving us out of bare pity?

1 Prov. xviii. 24. 2 John xiv. 23. 3 Heb. xiii. 5.
* Num. xxiii. 19. 5 Matt, xxviii. 20. 6 Ps. xci. 15.
1 Isa. xHii. 2. 8 Ps. xxiii. 4. 9 Luke xiii. 34.
10 Cant. V. 2. / 11 John xvii. 24.

 No, it was in His love as well as in His pity that He redeemed us 11 And love craves nearness. This is the very thing that differences love from the lesser glow of mere pity, or kindness, whatever their degrees or combinations. The Lord Jesus would not say, ‘Come with Me,’ if He did not feel towards us something far beyond any degree of pity and kindness. It is the Royal Invitation of His kingly love.
But now, what are you going to do about it? Hearing it, and thinking it very gracious, and all that, is not enough. You must come to a point about it.2 You must give as definite an answer to this as mere common courtesy demands to any earthly invitation. Giving no answer is an acknowledged insult. Will you treat the King thus? And if not what shall your answer be? You must give it yourself. Christ Himself is waiting for it.3
There is a beautiful type* which tells us how a maiden was chosen to be the bride of the son of a ‘mighty prince ‘5 in a far-off land. She was to answer for herself about it, and so ‘they said, We will call the damsel and enquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah, and said, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.”1
Shall this be your answer to-day?

1 Isa. lxiii. 9. 2 1 Kings xviii. 21. 3 John vi. 67.
4 Gen. xxiv. 6 Gen. xxiii. 6. 6 Gen. xxiv. 57,58.