Come and See

‘ He (Jesus) saith unto them, Come and see.’ * Philip saith unto him, Come and See.’—John i. 39, 46.
WHEN Jesus had found Philip, Philip knew that he had found Him. And the next thing to knowing that * we have found Him’ is to find some one else, and say, ‘Come and see!’ I say it now to you, dear friend, known or unknown, ‘We have found Him!” ‘We see Jesus!” If you only knew the irresistible longing,* the very heart’s desire * that you should find and see Him too, you would pardon all the pertinacity, all the insistence, with which again and again we say, ‘Come and see!’ The woman of Samaria left her water-pot, and went her way into the city with the same message: ‘Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did.’5 And we to whom Jesus has said, ‘I that speak unto thee am He,’6 cannot do otherwise or less.

1 John i. 45. 2 Heb. ii. 9. 3 2 Cor. v. 14.
^ Rom. X. X. 6 John ir. 28, 2q. 6 John iv. 26 ; i Cor. ix. 16.

It is not always very easy to say it. You little know how much it sometimes costs us !1 You do not know that though the few words seem so easily spoken, and you take them as a matter of course from us, because you know we are of ‘that way” of thinking, they may have cost us not a little wrestling with God for faith and courage to utter them, and an effort which will leave us weary and exhausted. But ‘we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard; ” ‘we also believe, and therefore speak. ‘* We have seen Jesus,5 and therefore we must tell you of the sight, and entreat you to ‘ come and see.’ Understand or misunderstand us as you will, we must ‘say, Come!
But what is it that we are so burningly eager for you to see? Very likely you suppose it is just that we have a certain set of views that we have taken up, and we want you to hold the same. You think it is merely that we want to bring you over to our opinions, and that we want to have the satisfaction of getting you to agree with us! Oh, how wide of the mark! It is no such thing. We are not speaking of what we think, but ‘we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.” We have seen by faith8 the only sight that is worth gazing upon, the sight that satisfies the angels,9 the sight that is enough for the joy and satisfaction of immortal vision throughout eternity. One thing we know, that, whereas we were blind, now we see.10

1 2 Sam. xxiv. 24. 2 Acts xix. 9 ; ib. ix. 2. 3 Acts iv. 20.
* 2 Cor. iv. 13. 5 I John i. 3. 6 Rev. xxii. 17.
‘ I John iv. 14; John iii. 11. 8 Heb. xi. 27. 9 x Tim. iii. 16. 10 John ix. 25.

We see Jesus, as our Lord and our God.1
We see Him as the very Saviour we need, and the very Friend we craved.
We see Him as ‘ the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
We see Him wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities ;3 our Substitute and our Sin-bearer.
We see Him, too, crowned with glory and honour,* and we rejoice in His glory and beauty ;5 we make our boast of Him.*
If you say to us, ‘What is thy Beloved more than another beloved?” we reply, ‘My beloved is the chiefest among ten thousand. Yea, He is altogether lovely.’
It is not at all only for your own sakes that we want you so very much to come and see. We do want you to look and be saved.8 But our earnestness has a stronger spring than even that. We love our Lord, so that we cannot bear Him not to be esteemed aright. We cannot bear Him to be thought little of, and to be misunderstood it is pain, real pain, to us when He is not appreciated and loved and adored,10—when all that He has done is treated as not worth whole-hearted gratitude and love,”—when His great and blood-bought salvation is neglected.” For His own beloved sake, for His own glory’s sake, we want you to come and see, that you may love and bless and glorify Him!

1 John XX. 28. 2 Gal. ii. 20. 3 Isa. Hii. 5.
4 Heb. ii; 9. 5 Zech. ix. 17. 6 Ps. xxxiv. a.
? Cant. V. 9, 10, 16, 8 Isa.xlv. 22, 9 i Pet. ii. 4.
10 Isa. liii. 3. 11 Lam. i. 12. 12 Heb. ii. 3.

But, remember, this is not only our feeble human entreaty; it is Jesus Himself who first said, and still says, ‘ Come and see!’ He says, ‘Behold Me, behold Me!’1
I know what you will say when you have come. You will say, ‘Howbeit, I believed not their words until’I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me.’ Thou exceedest the fame that I heard!”

O Master, blessed Master, it is hard indeed to know
That thousands round our daily path misunderstand Thee so!
Despised and rejected yet, no beauty they can see,
O King of glory and of grace, beloved Lord, in Thee.
O Saviour, precious Saviour, come in all Thy power and grace,
And take away the veil that hides the glory of Thy face!
Oh, manifest the marvels of Thy tenderness and love,
And let thy name be blessed and praised all other names
above.

1 1sa. Ixv. X. 2 z Kings X. 7. 3 2 Chron. ix. 6.