By The Editor
HOW beautiful is worship! I remember being at a meeting one Sunday morning, and we were singing,
“See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flowed mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”
A lady in the meeting was singing with the tears streaming down her cheeks. The pathos of Calvary had touched her heart, and the sufferings of her Lord for her had unsealed the fountains of her eyes. How blessed it is when the Spirit moves our hearts to worship in spirit and in truth!
Many years ago at a conference, I shall never forget the close of the last meeting. Hundreds of Christians were present, and the hymn was given out,
“Forever with the Lord,
Amen, so let it be;
Life from the dead is in that word,
‘Tis immortality.”
All stood to sing, and as the volume of sound soared upward in its deep intensity, it seemed to lift one from earth to heaven in the rapture of longing to be with Christ. One would not have been surprised if in a moment the prayer had been answered, and the song had been stilled on earth to blend with the glory song of heaven.
“Forever with the Lord,” is occupying many hearts now. I was in the shop of a Christian the other day, and husband and wife were talking to me about the Lord and His work and His coming again. The wife said, “Well, if the Lord were to come now, this house would be empty, and anyone who liked might have the shop and the business.”
I thought how beautiful to do one’s work in the light of His Second Coming, and how blessed to know that when He comes He will find us waiting for Him, while carrying on the duties of our lives.
I was visiting a dear, suffering child of God today. She was speaking of the goodness of God in giving her such comforts in her illness and such ministrations of love from friendly hands and loving hearts. I said, “Yes, the Lord has made you lie down in green pastures; He is leading you beside still waters.” And this He loves to do. I said, “I will give you my early morning text, which the Lord gave me for my comfort. I had been asking Him for light on a dark pathway, and for rest for a troubled experience. He gave me the seventh and eighth verses of the one hundred and thirty-eighth Psalm: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me; thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever.” This was balm in Gilead. This was rest and peace and hope, and all that one could wish. The angel of peace came with healing in his wings, and prayer was turned to thanksgiving.
A Christian lady came to me one Sunday evening in the Pallium and said, “I am very sorry to say this is my last Sunday in Exeter. I have been at the meetings here for fifteen Sundays, and I want to thank you for all that I have learned. I am going back to work for Christ where I live.” It was a cheer to feel that one had been able to help a child of God; and so the blessing spreads from heart to heart and life to life, the circle widening to the praise of God and the good of souls.
A patient of mine, not many hours before she died, rose quietly from her bed, leaving the nurse sleeping in the bedroom. She went downstairs at two o’clock in the morning, went into every room in the silent house, and said “Good-bye” to each. She looked for the last time on each familiar object associated with her childhood and with the growth of all her life, and then went back to bed to face death, and as I firmly believe to wait for heaven.
How solemn it is to know that soon we must all be gone. We must leave the home, the friends we love so well, the cherished objects, our inanimate friends we shall never see again. Life must go on without us here, the life indoors and out of doors, the coming in and the going out, the daily living and the daily life, and we shall have no more part in any of it. The voice says, a voice we shall all do well to listen to, “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:2, 32Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:2‑3)).