By the Editor
“Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?
Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.”
So wrote the saintly Bickersteth, Bishop of Exeter, in that hymn which has comforted thousands of sorrowing, harassed hearts. Its sweet solace seems to hush the soul, and lift the weary head bent down with care, until through the mist of human tears we see the face of Jesus.
“Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?
On Jesu’s bosom naught but calm is found.”
The writer has passed into his rest, and is now with Christ. We are left to face the sorrows of these awful days, but with “death shadowing us and ours,” and “sorrows surging round,” may we be kept “in perfect peace,” with our minds stayed upon God.
Had the Bishop been living today the shadow would have fallen upon him, as the following touching incident will tell. I give it as sent me by the writer: —
“He being dead, yet speaketh” (Heb. 11)
I asked my dear friend, Miss Bickersteth, daughter of Bishop Bickersteth, late Bishop of Exeter, if I might publish in “A Message from God” part of a beautiful letter that his grandson, the late Lieut. Lionel Bickersteth Rundall, wrote to his mother a few days before he and his brother, Captain Rundall, were killed in battle last December. His regiment was the 1St Battalion 1St Goorkha Rifles, King George’s Own. I think the words of one, who so willingly gave his life for his King and his country, will come home with power to any soldier or sailor, or indeed any one, who reads his fearless words.
He wrote: “None can die before or after God wishes him to, and all the shots and shells in the world will not account for him till that time comes. It simply means this: I trust that the life which ceases on earth will be more useful elsewhere, and if one has trusted one’s poor existence to CHRIST till now, why not ALL THE MORE so at the present time? I am confident, mother, that not all the enemies in creation can finish one till the time comes when one is needed elsewhere for higher work.”
Miss Bickersteth writes: “God knows that in all the storm and tempest He still says to us, ‘Peace, it Isaiah 1’ By all means use my sweet boy’s message, as I should love to feel it helped others.”
“HE BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH.” Dear reader, see to it that you have, as this young officer did, yielded yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ before you are called to the Front or to a dying bed. Make sure that you are His now.
Emily P. Leakey
“Death shadowing us and ours”
This terrible War is taking toll of all our homes. A widow in France has had her four sons dispersed by the War to different parts of the field of battle. She says, without complaint, “I deliver my four children into the hands of God.”
One young wife, left with only small children, and whose husband has written despairingly from the Front, writes: — “There is so much sorrow in our separation that my heart is broken, but God has come to my aid and has calmed and encouraged me. Shall we meet again here below? God only knows. Oh, I suffer for those who live without God and without hope! For them the agony must be terrible, for I myself have moments when I feel that life would be insupportable were it not for the peace of the Saviour.”
Watchnight Service at the Palladium
We had a service in the Palladium from eleven o’clock on Thursday, December 31St to 12:30 on Friday morning, January 1St of this year. We had a very solemn service indeed, and a good many were present. I received the following letter from a parent who was present with his son: —
“DEAR DR. WREFORD, — On old year’s eve I sat with my boy in the Palladium to listen to you preach, and while you were speaking of the funeral knell of the world sounding, and the tolling of the bell of the world’s doom, I felt my boy shaking the seat beside me. I was praying that God would speak to him now, and sure enough the word had reached his heart. I did not know this until I was walking home with him, when he said, FATHER, THE TOLLING OF THE BELL! and burst into tears. He wept for some time. When I reached home I took the Word of God, and reading John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) verse to him, I asked him to read it like this: ‘God so loved ME that He gave His only begotten Son, that if I believe in Him, I shall not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Then, after praying with him, I left him in his bed, and went to my room and prayed that God would finish the work He had begun in his soul. I felt the assurance in my own soul that God would answer my prayer. I was unable to see him again until about midday, and then I said to him, How is it now? he replied, ‘I have had a very anxious time this morning; it was continually in my mind (I saw he had been weeping much), but about twelve o’clock the burden flew away and I felt so happy and knew my sins were all gone, washed away by the precious blood of God’s dear Son.’ To Him be all the praise. I can now say that truly there is a great change in his life, but he needs your prayers. What a joy to know that God has blessed His word the first day of 1915, and saved a soul at the Palladium! This is worth all we do for Him, and oh! how little we do for Him who has done everything for us. Dear Doctor, go on with the preaching, and God WILL bless. We SHALL reap if we faint not.”
Pray, friends, for this young convert, our first known soul for 1915, and pray for others who are anxious.
Our dear friend, Mr. Samuel Tomkins, has sent me some very appropriate verses on the War, which I very gladly insert here: —