Matthew 23:37

THE CALL REJECTED

‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!’

Matthew 23:37

‘How often!’ Do not let that ‘how often’ be a mere impassioned exclamation. Make it what it is—a distinct definite question put to you this day—‘How often?’ And what arithmetic can write the answer? Let us see some of the different modes in which the rejection of God has been made.

I. ‘Have I been called?’—Some there are who will rise up and say, ‘I do not consider that I have ever yet been called.’ And these divide themselves into two classes—(a) those who wish that they could believe that they had been called; and (b) those who virtually complain that they have not received any ‘call.’ Alas for the unbelief of the one, and the presumption of the other!

II. Indifference to the call.—There are those who, conscious that they have been called, nevertheless treat the matter with indifference. These are your ‘men of ease in Zion’; men (a) of business, men (b) engrossed in a round of money-making toil, and (c) the humble, domestic man, living in his own little circle.

III. Acceptance delayed.—There are more, again, who recognise the importance of a ‘call,’ but who put off the acceptance of it. These are minds which Satan decoys by beautiful pictures of their own future. These men think that they can command the sovereign working of the Holy Ghost. ‘When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.’

IV. Preparing to accept.—There are others, a large class, quick, impressive, sensitive characters, who, at the time, receive, and welcome, and reciprocate the love of God, but it all dies away like ‘water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.’ It is always ‘I go, sir; I go’: yet they go not.

V. Those who draw back.—There is a fifth class—the saddest, the guiltiest, the most awful of all. They listen—they draw nigh—they ‘taste the heavenly gift’—but the old, carnal nature comes back again, and it prevails. They draw back, and they go out into the distance, and have ‘crucified to themselves the Son of man afresh, and put Him to an open shame’: and they ‘judge themselves unworthy of eternal life.’

VI. ‘Ye would not.’—Now, of all these refusals of God’s grace, the real secret is the same. They may cover themselves with various pretexts—but the cause is one. ‘How often would I have gathered thee—and ye would not.’ It is the absence of the will. And what will be the end of it? Ask Jerusalem. The end will be—the most accurate retribution that the world ever saw.

The Rev. James Vaughan.