A CHRISTIAN was staying in a little country village. She did not know any one in the place, and her lonely heart longed for intercourse with others who loved the things so dear to herself'. One day a woman, taking from her some little books she was distributing, told her that she, too, had "peace with God." I cannot tell you how welcome a ray of sunshine this brought to her who had felt so sorrowful. These two were of one mind—having one Saviour, being the children of the same Father—was it then any wonder that as they both "feared the Lord" they "spoke often one to another"?
Mrs. P. related how God had given her the peace she possessed, and how He had Jed her to Christ as her Saviour, "At that time," she said, "I was living in service, and though I was not notoriously bad, I had no place in the home above, and had I been called away I should not have been ready. I became ill, and then it was that I feared; my fear increased to real terror, terror that was something awful, and everything seemed to go against me. I prayed earnestly, and struggled for salvation, but the more I tried the more wicked I felt. All seemed to go wrong. I felt angry, and a fearful feeling that I must blaspheme took hold of me. Never before had I felt thus.
“Some years went on, and still I had no peace. There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.' (Isa. 48:22.) Still I sought and prayed. One day, as I knelt in prayer, a calm filled my soul, where before all was confusion and unrest. The desperate feeling that I must give way to cursing and bitterness ' left me, and has never since returned. Satan seemed to flee from me.”
“It was then that you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and looked alone unto Him?”
“It was, indeed, and though life is a hard warfare, and I have many troubles, God has kept me, and will keep me unto the end.'”
“True, but remember the little text, 'Kept by the power of God.'”
Before this little talk was over, Mrs. P. was asked to give a text to the father of the young lady who had been talking to her.
"I will give you one, sir," she answered readily, "that has often been a guide to me: Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.'”
"A good guide," her friend replied, “for it leads us to God in prayer, and He is able to keep us from falling.' But if you are a child of His you can never fall eternally. Your children may sometimes grieve you, but still they never can be anything but your children; so with Christians—true believers who are ' born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.'" (1 Peter 1:23.)