Lifting the Veil of the Past
By Heyman Wreford.
THE writer of the following letter put it into my hands a few weeks ago with no thought of its being published, but thinking it would cheer my heart. As I read the simple record of the great things the Lord had done for himself and his family — the veil was lifted, and I looked back through a long vista of more, than 50 years. I saw the thousands thronging to hear the gospel week after week for more than 30 years, eager to listen in the Royal Public Rooms and the Victoria Hall, Exeter. I saw my beloved father showing the people into the fast filling seats, then sitting down to listen not far from the platform. Then in the Inquiry Room, encircled oftentimes by anxious sinners, he pointed them to the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Oh! what a tower of strength he was to me until the Lord called him home! A man of God indeed! A lover of precious souls, as all who knew him could testify. Almost his last prayers were, when he Was on the threshold of heaven, “God bless thy servant at the Victoria Hall,” repeated over and over again, and to me, after blessing all his children, his message was, as if he knew, with prophetic instinct, what troubles I should have to face for the sake of the work the Lord had given me to do in Exeter. “You will be sustained, you have His own Word, and your desire is for His glory.” I have been sustained, and shall be till I pass to the rest that he has won.
Thank God for the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8 to the end of the chapter, Where the human side and the divine side are so beautifully portrayed, and which are in a varying degree the experience of every servant of God.
To be sent by God to do a work for Him is to face oftentimes the enmity of the world, and also, alas! oftentimes the jealousy of others. Please read this letter.