To One Who Wants to Get Close to Christ
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Dear friend,
I am not going to ask you to tell me anything more about your trouble than you have told me already. When you are ready for it, you will open your heart to me fully. Meanwhile, let me say to you that you must open your heart to Christ. You need not fear to tell him anything which concerns you. Of course, he knows all about it — but he wants you to tell it, nevertheless. When you read this letter, will you not fall on your knees and tell Christ out of your deepest heart, in simplest, most childlike way, precisely what it is that is imperilling your life, or casting a shadow over you, hiding the face of the Master from you? You say you do not get near to Christ, and that it is because you will not. The reason you give, is the only reason that ever keeps anyone away from the utmost closeness to the heart of the Saviour. He once said, "You will not come to me, that you might have life." He longs to have us not only come to him — but come very close to him. Christ hungers for our full confidence, for our most trusting love, and then for our most faithful obedience.
But let me say to you that there need not be a single day more of this pain or sorrow in your heart. You have only to creep back into the bosom of that Friend, who loves you more than anyone in all the world loves you. I was teaching our teachers last Monday evening the lesson for next Sunday — the Fifty-first Psalm — and I spoke particularly of the completeness, the fullness and the gladness of God's forgiveness. He not only blots out the record of our sins against us, and washes us until every stain is gone, until we are whiter than snow — but he takes us back into his own heart so speedily that it is as if we never had sinned at all!
He says, "Our sins and our iniquities, He will remember no more against us forever." The very memory of our wrongdoing fades from the mind of God when he forgives us, so full is his love — so rich, so tender, so overflowing. Whatever it is, therefore, that has been in any sense hiding the face of Christ from you, put it away and be sure that you will be received into your old place, with all the infinite love of your Saviour's heart.
But I need not write more. You understand and I want you always to know with what loving interest I shall pray for you all the days until I know my letter has reached you. It will all be right, and you must not be discouraged. You must not stay a day in the shadows. Come out into the full sunlight — and you will be surprised at the great joy which your heart will have.
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