COME, OR JESUS WILL SOON SAY, 'DEPART'

 We come to the last devotion of "Welcome to Jesus"

by Rev. James Smith 1855

Monday we will begin Rev. James Smith title

"Christ Alone."

SEPTEMBER 1

COME, OR JESUS WILL SOON SAY, 'DEPART'

"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh." Hebrews 12:25

Jesus speaks to you 

  in love, in pity, 

   in tender mercy. 

His object is your good, 

  your eternal good. 

He aims at your highest welfare, 

  therefore he calls you to him. 

Will you refuse him? 

What! refuse to come to him 

  who alone can save you from certain, 

  from interminable damnation! 

What! refuse him who wishes to save you,

  him who waits to save you,

   him who will not only preserve you 

     from sinking into Hell,

   but will raise you to the highest honor, 

   the sweetest happiness,

   the fullness of joy in his own blessed presence!

If you refuse to come to Jesus, 

  your conduct is interpreted as saying to him,

   "Depart from us, for we desire not 

       the knowledge of thy ways!"

 And the result will be, 

  that when he comes to glorify

   his people with himself, and 

  to reward every one according to his works,

  he will pronounce this fearful sentence upon you,

    "Depart from me, ye cursed, 

         into the eternal fire prepared for 

                 the devil and his angels!"

Nor can you complain of this,

  for if you bid him depart whenever 

  he comes near to you in your lifetime, 

  though he comes in mercy and love,

  then what can you expect but that, 

  when he comes to judge

  the world in righteousness, 

  he should treat you as you have so long 

   and so often treated him?

Oh, if he should say to you:

   "Depart!" 

Whether will you go? 

Whether can you go? 

There is but one place that will receive you, 

  and that is Hell, that dreadful Hell! 

You will then have 
no companions but fallen spirits, 

and the most wretched and depraved of mankind;
no cessation from pain and suffering;
no employment but bitter reflection 

  and endless self-accusation.

Come then, O come to Jesus now, 

  or you will compel him to say to you,

   "Depart from Me. For ever!"

Because I have called, and ye refused; 

  I have stretched out my hand, 

  and no man regarded; 
 but ye have set at nought all my counsel, 

  and would none of my reproof: 
 I also will laugh at your calamity; 

 I will mock when your fear cometh; 

                             Proverbs 1:24 -26

 James Smith 1855