LORD JESUS, COME! "Come in, O come, the door stands open now; I knew Thy voice, Lord, it was Thou; The sun has set. long since, the storms begin; 'Tis time for Thee, O Lord, come in! "Alas, ill-ordered shows the dreary room, ' The household stuff lies heaped amidst the gloom; The table empty stands, the couch un dressed, Ah! what a welcome for the Eternal Guest! "Ye t welcome! And tonight this doleful scene Is e'en itself a cause to hail Thee in; This dark confusion e'en at once de mands Thine own bright presence, Lord, and ordering hands. "I seek no more to alter and to mend Before the coming of so great a Friend; All were at best unseemly, and 'twere ill Beyond all else, to keep Thee waiting still. "Come, not to find, but make this troubled heart A dwelling worthy of Thee as Thou art. To chase the gloom, the terror and the sin, M Come, all Thyself, come, Lord Jesus, in! —Author Unknown press anger. He states plainly that we are guilty before Him but that He can re move our guilt. He can take out the stain of sin because He has the special, secret formula. It is written in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah: the specifications of the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world, offering Himself upon the cross to pay the penalty of your sin and mine. The One who wears the crown of judgment is the One who wore the crown of thorns. Sin red as scarlet is cleansed away in His precious blood, and the sinner shall be white as wool. There is a great .company in heaven who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; they are the most dis tinguished people of all the ages, who have been wise enough to respond to a great and irresistible love. God wants to reason with the sinner reading this message. He invites you personally to come to Him. He does not want to berate; He wants to save you. He wants to save you so much that He gave His life in order to do it. Can you doubt His love? Can you question His sincerity? Come, and even your present sin of ingratitude will be remembered against you no more, forever. There is healing for all mankind at the foot of His cross. Page Seven
worshiping in God’s house. Today the church is so busy attempting to reform social malefactions that it has forgotten the need of spiritual power necessary to change an individual or society. There
member of that family has ever made Phi Beta Kappa, the ass knows whence his sustenance comes. But Israel, with a reputation for intelligence, did not recog nize that it was God who provided for them. “ Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,” sighs the Lord over this poor, sinful people, longing to love them back to favor if they will permit Him to do so. It is the same yearning with which Christ pleaded with sin-laden souls: “ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. “ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt. 11:28, 29). The Psalmist staggers under the same theme: “ For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psa. 38:4). Indeed, our sins are too heavy for us and a load that we cannot bear. But we do not need to bear them. Christ was our sin-bearer upon the cross, and He wants to be our burden-bearer today. If you are carrying a burden of sin, take it to the cross and Jesus will relieve you of your load. Are the problems of life too difficult to bear? Take them to Christ in prayer, and He will hear your burden. Although Israel was guilty of the grossest sins, and the people had broken all of God’s commandments, strangely enough, God did not itemize these sins against them. He singles out the best thing in Israel, and shows that it is cor rupt. The religion of Israel, pure and God-given, had become evil. The Lord charged specifically: “ To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. “When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain ob lations; incense.is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your ap pointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” When religion becomes corrupt, it is the worst thing on earth. Three steps outline the downfall of. every nation: spiritual apostasy, moral breakdown, and political anarchy. God placed His finger upon the root cause of Israel’s sickness. Every nation that has gone down has taken these three decadent steps, and spiritual apostasy is the first step on the descent. We have witnessed a moral breakdown in our country. We are fac ing political anarchy today. But the root of our trouble is that first of all, we for got God. This happened about fifty years ago when men started to neglect praying and F E B R U A R Y , I 9 4 9
Dr. J. V. McGee Newly elected pastor of the Church of the Open Door
is a dearth of God’s power in the church. The church interfered with the politics of the world, and now the church is filled with politics. There is a spiritual coma upon the church. The description of the lukewarm condition of the Laodicean church fits us like a glove. The church is impotent and speechless; the church militant has given way to the church pacific. Attempts to bring about a world-wide revival have failed, al though outwfird conditions have not stood in the way. The internal state of the church, preoccupied with man-made programs, has interfered. Aftermaking a detailed charge against Israel, the Lord rendered a verdict, and handed down a sentence. Israel had been proven utterly guilty; her sin merited punishment. The human heart urgently desires that evil be punished, especially if the other fellow did the evil! The silent cry of the soul for justice was placed there by God. But His sentence shows us His character. How unlike man’s way is God’s. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He is kinder to us than we are to each other. He is even kinder to us than we would be to ourselves. We want to kick our selves for doing that which we did not intend to do. Every right-thinking man and woman will admit that God cannot arbitrarily forgive our sins without do ing something about them. If we do not bear judgment, someone must. Do you know anyone anxious to bear the death penalty for your sins? “ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18). God does not wield a big stick; He does not ex-
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