Compel Them to Come in.

From: The Evangelist: Volume 5 (1871) By: Hugh Henry Snell

• 5 min. read • grade level: 8

“Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."—Luke 14:23²³And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. (Luke 14:23).

THESE are the words of Jesus, and how full of mercy! Could language more powerfully convey the deep unutterable love of His heart towards sinful men? Surely no one on earth ever did, or ever could, love sinners like Jesus. He came into the world to save sinners. He preached to them. He prayed for them. His heart was filled with deepest pity and compassion towards them. "He sighed deeply in His spirit" over the unbelief of some, and "grieved for the hardness of heart" of others. He wept over impenitent Jerusalem, and opened wide His gracious arms to gather them, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but they would not. Still He loved. He made intercession for the transgressors, bore the sins of many, poured out His soul unto death, put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and died for the ungodly.

Thus Jesus, in the perfectness of love, met the righteous judgment of God on our behalf, satisfied every holy claim, glorified God, and purged our sins—"suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." Every demand of divine holiness and truth having been thus righteously met, the aboundings of divine grace now flow out unhinderedly, in the gospel of God, to guilty and ruined sinners. The sacrifice of Christ having been offered, God is now faithful and just to forgive the vilest of sinners, that takes shelter before Him in the atoning work of His beloved Son. Hence we read that "the grace of God bringeth salvation "—not our works, our religiousness, or our feelings— but "the grace of God bringeth salvation." Salvation, too in its fullest, truest sense—present and eternal salvation. Salvation to the uttermost; salvation at once; salvation without money and without price; salvation to any one who comes to God by Christ, as He said, "By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." (John 10:9⁹I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9).) It is brought from God to man, to the chief of sinners; for "the grace of God bringeth salvation." (Titus 2:11¹¹For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (Titus 2:11).)

This wondrous message, therefore, of reconciliation to God by the death of His Son is to be spread far and wide, and the servants who carry the message are enjoined to be so earnest with sinners as to "compel them to come in." God is in earnest, Christ is in earnest, and His servants should also be in earnest, and "compel them to come in." This is not trafficking in unfelt truth; not the cold. enunciation of dry orthodoxy; not the tame monotony of well-set eloquence; not the pastime of critical intellectualism; but the fervent, burning, inimitable eloquence of love, telling out the message of divine grace to most unworthy objects, a felt sense of bearing that which rescues souls from eternal misery, plucks sinners as brands from the burning, and when in the power and unction of the Holy Ghost, lands them in full peace and liberty in God's most holy presence—compels them to come in.

Those whose hearts are thus fired with the sweetness, tenderness, and fullness of divine grace, must feel that time is short—that death is snatching its myriads of victims on every hand. They must enter somewhat into the value of souls, the eternal misery of the damned, the never-ending joys and glories of the saved, and the power and value of the cross of Christ. They know that soon "the door will be shut," the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and then, O then, eternity—boundless, changeless eternity I How soon it may be. How brief the span of time, and then both he who writes and they who read will be, must be, in eternity—the saved in glory with Christ, the lost in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

In the face of these eternal realities, dear reader, we would ask you pointedly and most lovingly, Have you come in? We are urged by the Lord Himself to "compel them to come in." Have you come to God by Christ? Have you received Christ Jesus the Lord as your Savior? Is He alone the foundation of your hope? Is He your way to God? Have you come unto Him, and drank to satisfy your never-dying thirsty soul? Did not He say, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink?" Dear reader, have you?

COME! all oppressed with sin and care,

Who weary and much laden are,

Cease from your works and REST,

By faith in God's life-giving SON—

Who for your guilt did once atone,

Now bids the outcast find a home

Of refuge in His breast.

'Who thirst for life's free waters, come!

Drink now and be refreshed.

You've naught to do, for ALL is DONE!

That work's complete which Christ begun,

Only on it depend.