W K Tweedie
Isaiah 55:1. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price.
Why come? Because the invitation is addressed to sinners, and I am surely one. Am not I so athirst as to be weary and faint in my mind? Is not my soul like one that dwells in a dry, parched land? Have I not felt that all this world can offer cannot satisfy my soul? I have fled to object after object and listened to counsellor after counsellor. When one thing disappointed, I have tried another, and another; but all have failed. Rest seems to flee as I pursue it; and I can now only mourn in my complaint, and make a noise.
If I say, Surely a change of scene or friends or pursuits will bring relief, then vanity and vexation are stamped upon them, till I am compelled to say, “Miserable comforters are ye all”. The delight of my eyes taken away with a stroke; my own familiar friend become my enemy; the object of my affection turned into bitterness; or, to crown all, my sins pressing upon me like a load too heavy for me to bear; conscience accusing; the soul dis-tempered and dismayed – surely these all urge me to flee to the fountain so full and so free!
But may I flee? One so guilty, one so perverse, or so far gone in sin – may
1Taken, with slight editing, from Tweedie’s volume, Glad Tidings.
I flee? To doubt it is to add sin to sin, to make God a liar, and therefore to render ruin sure. His language is, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come”. Away, then, unbelief; away all faltering and delay. When God invites, I will, through grace, comply. When God promises, I will, through grace, believe. When the Spirit and the Bride say, Come, I will go; and if I perish, I will perish in the arms of mercy, at the foot of the cross.
But I should not be always laying the foundation of repentance from dead works. No, I should go on to perfection and become strong in the Lord. For these purposes, I should live beside the throne of grace, for I am safe only when under its shadow, or linked to it by the golden chain of love. Come then, O Breath, and breathe upon this soul, that it may open to the Saviour like the little flower to the sunshine and the dew.