ONE day, during a lengthened siege and warfare, a Christian soldier and a Missionary had retired to a quiet spot for prayer and reading of the word of God. Soon a shell dropped at their feet. On this they went a little further off; but again the exercises were disturbed by another terrible invader which fell beside them, shaking the very ground beneath them. “Never mind,” said the soldier, “it is only the devil trying to spoil our enjoyment: let us go on.”
They had just resumed when whiz, whiz, with a loud fall a thirty-two-pound shot lay beside them. The missionary was alarmed, but the soldier calmed his fear by quietly saying,
“Not a single shaft can hit
Till the love of God sees fit.”
This same missionary was one day conversing with a godly officer in a retired spot. The officer said, “We have been long enough here, let us move away.” No sooner had they removed than a 13-inch shell dropped and burst on the very spot where they had been standing. “God had cared for us,” the missionary afterwards said, “and we were safe.”
“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.”
A Christian soldier, when buckling himself for the fight, put his Bible into his bosom, saying, “if I fall, it will be there; and if I am taken prisoner it will speak to me, and I can never be weary with such a companion.”
ML 05/01/1904