By the Editor
January, 1884, To December, 1922
THIS December number brings the issue of “A Message from God” to the end of its thirty-ninth year. I remember well the prayerful anxiety that was, mine, that God would bless it when it was first issued. My opening words in the first number were: “This little magazine has not been sent forth without earnest prayers. The Editor feels how much he needs the remembrance of God’s children, that His blessing may rest upon it.”
I feel that as much today as I did forty years ago when the words were written.
My opening prayer on the first page of the first number was in the words of the saintly G. V. Wigram: “To give up what Thou would’st have me to be without, and to take up what Thou would’st have me to be in, or upon me; be this, through grace, my service to Thyself, Father of our Lord Jesus. Amen.”
We have sought every month to make our little booklet what it is called, “A Message from God.” Over and over again, through its forty years, we have had proof after proof that God has blessed it.
We can honestly say that we have never swerved, through grace, from the great foundation truths of the Word of God. We have always taught and held these great realities: —
— God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
— The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
— The Divine Inspiration of, the Scriptures.
— The immortality of the soul.
— The Atoning Death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven.
— The fall of man, the necessity of the new birth, and justification by faith alone.
— The eternal punishment of the wicked.
Remember me, then, dear friends before God. We cannot expect much longer, if the Lord tarry, to carry on our work. On the last page of this number I have told you how the Lord is prospering our Testament and Tract distribution. I would say one word in closing. We want 50,000 Testaments to begin 1923 with. May God be with all my readers, and bless everyone who has helped us through 1922. Every gift has been thankfully received, and has brought blessing, I trust, to the giver. My illness has prevented me from writing as often as I have wished, but I have richly proved the loving forbearance of a multitude of friends.
Yours for Christ’s sake,
Heyman Wreford.