By the Editor
“A Message from God” 39 Years Old
My Very Dear Friends,
God, in His great mercy, has allowed me to edit “A Message from God” for 39 years this December. When I was first asked by a publisher to edit a gospel magazine, I felt the responsibility to be too great, but God through all these 39 years has helped, and blessed and sustained.
In quiet hours of eventide it is good to recall the fervor of tireless days and nights, when the Lord sent us to work in His harvest fields. We feel now the rapture of those days, when the “gathered sheaves” were brought to His feet. We remember how, with soul aflame, we saw the lights of heaven shining out over the great deeps of human need: the glory of the risen Christ flooding all the heaving billows of life’s unquiet sea. When through His wondrous grace, He filled, our soul with the awfulness of sin, and the need of a sinner of a Saviour’s love and sacrifice. Oh! days of long ago, ye cannot come again as then.
The meridian hour of life must pass, with all its strength for service.
We think of those with whom we labored, who now have passed into His presence. We recall the fervor of their prayers, the comfort of their presence, the characteristics that marked their Christian personality and pathway. Do we sometimes long to hear their voices once again? Do we wish at times to feel the pressure of their loving hands once more, and to see in their eyes the light that has faded, never to shine on earth again? Do we miss their encouragement and their sympathy? Is there now and then a sense of loneliness in service, now that many of those who understood us best have been called home? It may be so; but when everything closes up down here He remains. We can rejoice in this, that “He is the same, yesterday, to day, and forever.” This blessed assurance covers time and eternity: covers all the “light afflictions” with the glory of abiding love. It makes us feel that all the resources of heaven are for the solace and strength of our souls. “Thou remainest.” We lose many of our loved ones in the work, friends of many years; thank God for those who remain. We sorrow over our sins and failures; He remains to restore our souls, and to make good every promise as we pass through all the joys and sorrows of Christian life. With great humbleness of heart, we can say that God has greatly blessed our efforts in the Gospel work of “A Message from God.” Those who distribute it tell us constantly of many conversions through the Holy Spirit using it. We have made a host of Christian friends through it, who with generous warmth have told us that it has many times been “A Message from God” to their souls, and to many others to whom they have given it. I hope God will permit me to edit the magazine until the Lord comes, or until my work is done.