MISSION TIDINGS

MISSION TIDINGS FOR FEBRUARY 1984

CLASSIS EAST SOURCE AMOUNT

Michigan Estate gift $ 500.00

Franklin Lakes Collection 636.00

Friend in New Jersey Gift 10.00

Friend in Illinois Gift 200.00

Friend in Michigan Gift 150.00

Grand Rapids Gift 150.00

Clifton Gift 225.00

CLASSIS MIDWEST

Friend in So. Dakota Gift 10.00

CLASSIS FARWEST

California Gift 125.00

Lethbridge Gift 25.00

Chilliwack Collection 1033.68

Sunnyside Sale 3100.00

Total $6164.68

Dear friends,

We want to thank everyone for the generous support of the mission. May the Lord bless you and your gifts.

The Lord willing, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Moerdyk hope to leave for Nigeria in April to help out for a year or two at the Izi mission; because of the expansion of this mission, those working there are overloaded with work. It will be pleasant for the Moerdyk brothers to work together for a while.

THE COMMISSION OF THE LIVING KING

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” (Matt. 28:19a.) “Behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him.” (Matt. 28:7.)

This was the message that was spoken by the angel at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This word is now fulfilled. The eleven disciples went to the mountain where Jesus had revealed Himself. We do not know which mountain it was. That is of less importance. The Lord has mentioned a mountain to them where they should gather together, so that they would not lose track of one another in the wide country of Galilee.

The Lord Jesus lived nearly all His life to the north in the Galilee of the heathens. Most of His disciples came from that place. There the Lord had spoken the most and performed most of His wonders. Most of God’s people were living there.

We should not be surprised that the hearts of the disciples were drawn to this place. Most likely it was because the Lord had promised to appear unto them there. The Spirit of God had given them the desire to see the Lord, and to be with Him. When the Shepherd was beaten, the sheep were scattered, but because the Shepherd seeks them, therefore they also seek the Shepherd, to be permanently united with Him. A child of God can go astray like a sheep which thoughtlessly loses his Shepherd, but nevertheless their heart is always drawn to the Shepherd again. This is because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which was given unto them.

Here in the land of Galilee the Lord has opened His Testament for the disciples, a Testament with rich promises, but also with an important commission; “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

The Lord Jesus did not spare His disciples according to their flesh, because when He sends them into the world, it at the same time means that they have to leave this old trustworthy community where they had spent such good years. The time of their spiritual youth, also their first love, lay behind them, and now life will become very serious and earnest for them.

For three years they had gone in and out with the Lord; now they must labor without His personal presence, but only upon the promise, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Now they must continue without His blessed and daily personal presence, and must learn to live only by faith. They also must miss the daily communion with the people of God, and they must go among a sea of people, who are strangers of God and His service. God often sets His children and servants in the breakers of life, and often their way is through the desert.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” Is this now a task which they were meant for? They were only simple fishermen. They had scarcely seen anything of the world. They were not acquainted with the many languages, they also did not know, at this time, that the Lord could teach them in one day, by His Spirit. What did they have to teach? They had only been taught three years themselves, and oh, how unteachable they themselves had been, and yet they had been in the best school that we can think of, because the Lord Himself had taught them, and His instruction had penetrated into their soul. They had learned experimentally what they had to teach others.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” The disciples were sent out with this commission by the living King of His church to preach the gospel of free grace. What must such unlearned Galileans do in that pious Jewish world, and in the world of socalled Greek wisdom? If the Lord had not spoken, “all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth,” then they could just as well have stayed home.

But now the Lord would accompany them with His Spirit, and He would open hearts where they would not expect it. He would, by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, make souls receptive for the Word which they would preach and for the instruction which they would give. Indeed, if Jesus would not show His power in the conversion of sinners, then it would be lost eternally, because all earthly power put together is not able to convert one sinner to God.

But the power, the divine power of the Mediator, is sufficient to bring the instruction of the Word of God into our hearts, so that we will believe God on His Word. We will believe that we are sinners, condemnable sinners. We will believe that we have deserved temporal and eternal punishments. And, oh, the wonder of it all, the Living King does not do a half work. Where He causes a sinner to bow by His Spirit under the convicting and condemning instructon of the Word of God, there He also makes a soul desirous for the forgiveness and acquittal of all their sins, for salvation only in Him, Who came to seek and to save that which is lost. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” That is the commission of the Living King to His disciples, and that commission is still valid.

Although we do not have to go out as missionaries, yet it is so necessary that there are people in the congregation of God who are made loose of the old man, from the slothful flesh and proud heart, to serve to His honor, to the extension of His kingdom.

No, the Lord does not need us. Therefore it is an honor, that He is willing to use us in the place where He has called us, as father and mother in our family, in our work among our colleagues, maybe on our sickbed wrestling at His throne of grace.

When we may truly serve as unworthy ones in ourselves, and our families, the world shall be aware of this. Then, by the grace of God, fruits will be seen of faith and conversion, because when God’s church may be in her right place, and may serve in truth and reality, then King Jesus will receive the praise.

Moerkapelle

THE CUP OF WRATH

In Gethsemane’s garden, before He suffered on the Tree of Calvary, there was presented to Christ the cup of suffering and of wrath which He must drink in order to save His people from their sins. The agony, bound up with the presentation of that cup to Him — “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” — is an indication to us of the awfulness of sin and of the punishment due to it. We are so ready to view sin lightly and to look upon it in such a way that one would think that it could easily be put away, but this is not so. Sin deserves eternal death, and that means the wrath and curse of God, unmitigated, throughout the endless ages of eternity. It was this cup, brimful of the wrath of God against sin, that was now set before the Divine Redeemer, and though He was the One Whom He was, yet the sight of that cup made the holy soul of the Saviour to tremble. “He began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.”

There in the garden He agonized in prayer to the Father with regard to that cup. His plea was that the cup might pass from Him, if that was the will of the Father. If salvation might be procured for and offered to sinners at any less cost than the shedding of the life blood of the Son of Man, then how desirable it was that it should be so. “Yet,” Christ had to say, “not My will, but Thine, be done.” With what deep agonizings of soul the Saviour travailed at this time. Of Him it is said: “Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared.” In that great crisis of His soul there appeared an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. Of the agony we are told: “And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Yet we find Him saying: “O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.” Notwithstanding all that that cup involved, Christ willingly, lovingly, undertook to drink it, just as He had earlier said to Peter, “The cup which My Father giveth Me, shall I not drink it?” Though it was the cup of His people’s damnation, yet to Him it was the cup which the Father had placed in His hand.

The question arises, who filled the cup? One answer no doubt is that Divine justice filled the cup brimful of the wrath of God. The law of God was offended, therefore Divine justice must step in and say, “Pay me that thou owest.” The demerit of sin and the penalty of sin is infinite. Ordinarily, therefore, the punishment of sin must be eternal. To bring the punishment of sin within time bounds, even to the space of three hours, required the interposition of One Who was of infinite worth, that is the eternal Son of God in our nature. The infinite worth of His Person gave infinite value to His sufferings and after three hours on the cross of Calvary Christ could say of the cup, “It is finished,” and Justice had to declare that it was satisfied. What transpired in these three hours of the Saviour’s bearing the wrath of God against sin, who can grasp? We must stand in wonder and amazement, knowing full well that the sufferings which He endured were infinite upon infinite.

Again we may ask, who filled the cup with wrath? This time the answer must come nearer home. The children of God have come to learn in their experience that their sins have crucified the Lord of Glory, and the cup presented to the Saviour in Gethsemane and at Calvary came to be filled to overflowing with the wrath of an infinitely righteous, infinitely holy, sin-avenging Jehovah. A sense of this can be overwhelming to the sinawakened soul, yet to the gracious soul what oceans of consolations there are in the realization that Christ has borne their sin for them and made an end of that sin for ever.

The cup of wrath was the Saviour’s, the cup of blessing is His people’s. This is the exchange that has been made. What a debt the people of God will owe to Christ throughout an endless eternity, for drinking that cup of wrath for them and giving them in exchange for it the cup of His rich grace and mercy and love. With what full hearts will they adore the Saviour and praise His great Name for the wonders of His redeeming love. The more that they will enter into the wonder of His dying that death for them, the more will they be drawn out in love to Him who loved them, and gave Himself for them.

Free Presbyterian Magazine

JOHN BERRIDGE (1716–1793)

Part II

Once enlightened by the Holy Ghost and brought into liberty of God’s children, John Berridge made rapid advances both in preaching and practice. He was not a man to do anything by halves, whether converted or unconverted; and a soon as he was converted he threw himself with constitutional energy into his Master’s service, with all his might, and soul, and strength. The learned Fellow of Clare soon ceased to preach written sermons, having discovered, by a providential accident, that he possessed the happy gift of preaching without book. His next step was to commence preaching outside his own parish, all over the district in which he lived, like a missionary. This he began on June 22nd, 1758. One of the first-fruits of this itinerant aggression was a clergyman named Hicks, rector of Wrestling-worth, near Everton, who afterwards became a very useful man and a faithful labourer in Christ’s vineyard. His third and crowning step was to commence preaching out of doors. This he began doing on May 14th, 1759, and describes it himself in a letter quoted by Whittingham: “On Monday week, Mr. Hicks accompanied me to Meldred. On the way we called at a farmhouse. After dinner, I went into the yard, and seeing nearly a hundred and fifty people, I called for a table, and preached for the first time in the open air. We then went to Meldred, where I preached in a field to about four thousand people. In the morning, at five, Mr. Hicks preached in the same field to about a thousand. Here the presence of the Lord was wonderfully among us; and I trust, beside many that were slightly wounded, nearly thirty received heart-felt conviction.”

Berridge had now climbed to the top of the tree as an evangelist. He preached the pure gospel; he preached extempore; he preached anywhere and everywhere where he could get hearers; he preached, like his Master, in the open air, if need required. We cannot therefore wonder that he was soon publicly known as a fellow-labourer with Whitefield, Wesley. Grimshaw and Romaine, and, as a popular preacher, little inferior to any of these great men. His life from this time forth, with little intermission, for more than thirty years, was spent in preaching the gospel. To this work he gave himself wholly. In season and out of season, out of doors or indoors, in churches or in barns, in streets or in fields, in his parish or out of his parish, the old Fellow of Clare College was constantly telling the story of the Cross, and exhorting sinners to repent, believe, and be saved. He became acquainted with Lady Huntingdon, John Thornton, John Wesley, Fletcher, John Newton, and other eminent Christians of his day, and kept up friendly intercourse with them. He went to London sometimes in the winter, and preached occasionally in the well-known Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road. But, as a general rule, he seldom went far from his own district, and rarely went into society. He found enough, and more than enough, to do in meeting the spiritual wants of congregations within that district, and seldom went to regions beyond.

The extent of his labours was prodigious. He used to preach in every part of Bedfordshire, Cambridge-shire and Huntingdonshire, and in many parts of Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. He would often preach twelve times, and ride a hundred miles in a week. Nor was he content with preaching. He watched carefully over those who were aroused by his sermons, and provided lay evangelists to look after them when he left them. Some of these evangelists appear to have been nothing but humble labouring men, for whose maintenance he had to provide out of his own pocket. But expenses like these he cheerfully defrayed out of his own purse as long as he had a shilling to spare, counting it an honour to spend his income in furthering Christ’s gospel. When he had nothing of his own to give, he would ask help of the well-known John Thornton, the London merchant; and to the honour of that good man he never seems to have asked in vain.

The spiritual effects that were produced by his preaching were immense. In fact, a singular blessing appears to have attended his ministry from the very moment that he began to preach the gospel. When we find that he was the means of awakening no less than four thousand persons in one single year, we may have some little idea of the good that he did in his district by his thirty years’ preaching. In calculations like these, allowance must always be made for a vast amount of exaggeration, and for an equally vast amount of excitement and false profession. Still, after every reasonable deduction has been made, there is no just ground for doubting that Berridge was the means of doing good to thousands of souls. Wherever he went he produced some impression. Some were reclaimed from sin, some were awakened and convinced, and some were thoroughly converted to God. If this is not doing good, there is no such thing as doing good in the world. Spiritual work done in rural parishes is, perhaps, less “seen of men” than any work within the province of the Christian ministry. The work that Berridge did among farmers and labourers had few to proclaim and chronicle it. But I strongly suspect the last day will prove that he was a man who seldom preached in vain. How few there are of whom this can be said!

It is undeniable that at certain periods of Berridge’s ministry very curious physical effects were produced on those who were aroused by his preaching. Some of his hearers cried out aloud hysterically, some were thrown into strong convulsions, and some fell into a kind of trance or catalepsy, which lasted a long time. These physical effects were carefully noticed by John Wesley and others who witnessed them, and certainly tended to bring discredit on the gospel, and to prejudice worldly people. But it is only fair to Berridge to say that he never encouraged these demonstrations, and certainly did not regard them as a necessary mark of conversion. That such phenomena will sometimes appear in cases of strong religious excitement — that they are peculiarly catching and infectious, especially among young women — that even the most scientific medical men are greatly puzzled to explain them — all these are facts which have been thoroughly established within the last twenty years during the Irish revival. To attempt to depreciate Berridge’s usefulness because of these things is simply ridiculous. Whatever the faults of the vicar of Everton were, he certainly does not seem to have favoured fanaticism. That he was perplexed by the physical demonstrations I have described, is the utmost that can be said against him on the subject. But, after all, the same may be said of many calm and sober-minded witnesses who saw the Ulster revival in 1858. In short, the whole subject, like demoniacal possession, is a very deep and mysterious one, and there we must be content to leave it. But a minister ought certainly not to be put down as a fanatic because people go into convulsions under his preaching.

It is needless to tell any Christian that Berridge was fiercely persecuted by the world throughout the whole period of his ministry. No name was too bad to be given to him. No means were left untried by his enemies to stop him in his useful career. Foremost, of course, among his persecutors were the unconverted clergy of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Cambridge-shire, who, like the dog in the manger, would neither do good themselves nor let anyone else do it for them. But, singularly enough, no weapon forged against the vicar of Everton seemed to prosper. Like Grimshaw at Haworth, there was an invisible wall of protection around him, which his bitterest foes could not pull down. Irregular as his proceedings undoubtedly were, offensive as they necessarily must have been to the idle, worldly clergymen who lived near him, they appeared unable to lay hold upon him and shut his mouth, from one end of his ministry to the other. From some extraordinary cause which we cannot now explain, the itinerant evangelist of Everton was never stopped by his persecutors for a single day! So true is the Word of God: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

(to be continued)

John Berridge J.C. Ryle

THE ASSAULT UPON CHRISTIAN UPBRINGING

Christian upbringing asks our attention. This subject covers a terrain which is clearly broader than Christian education. Upbringing receives its shape or form from:

Part I — the home

Part II — the church (preaching and catechizing)

Part III — the school

These three institutions are the pillars upon which Christian upbringing rests. Should one of these foundations be omitted or neglected, upbringing is undermined. We now wish to consider how these pillars are being attacked at present more than ever before. A terrible battle for “our” youth is going on. One of the most telling signs of the last days is being fulfilled — the great apostacy. We are living in the apocalyptic time in which Satan is loosed out of his prison and is going out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle against the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Revelation 20:7–9). Their number is as the sand of the sea. Is the prophecy not being fulfilled? “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (Revelation 12:12b) The dragon is angry with the woman and goes to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

It is my conviction that these developments sketched in God’s Word form the actual background for many tendencies which seem to be converging by chance at this time. We wrestle (about school, in and about the family, in and about the Church of God) “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers…..” (Ephesians 6:12)

And, alas, we have little defense in the battle. The weapons are indeed there, but we are ill-prepared, lack conviction, and lack ability to use them.

Against whom does the dragon fight in this battle? Fundamentally the battle is against the living Child, the man child of the woman in Revelation 12. We regard as untenable any exegesis which sees in this man child any person other than Christ. Now however that living Child has been caught up unto God and His throne. Therefore the battle is now against those who are of that Child, against the woman and “the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God”. It is necessary for us to keep this perspective from Revelation 12 in view. In his open or disguised attacks upon family, church, or school, the enemy is fighting against the seed of the woman, or, as we may also say, the living people of God.

Young people must suffer especially as a result of this battle. We now wish to consider where the breaches lie which have been made in the three pillars of Christian upbringing in recent times and where the fronts lie upon which the battle for the young people is being waged.

Part I. The Attack On The Family

Among Reformed groups the family has for centuries been a firm, protective fellowship. It has been structured and patterned after the Scriptural model as closely as possible. The lines of authority and the codes of conduct lay fast. This picture has changed drastically in the twentieth century. Following the first World War, but especially following the second World War, everything has come into a torrent of change. Innumberable Christian norms, long generally accepted, have been swept along in this flood. Man himself has again become normative. A consequence of this is an unrecognized relativism. The time again becomes like that of the Judges (Judges 21:25). In such a time we and our young people live. Most of our families still display conservative characteristics. Yet the spirit of the time infects us too. We shall list three different points of attack through which breaches are being made in the family.

1. The changing place of the woman in society. The woman has been “suppressed or subservient” for centuries. The man had a “patriarchal role”. The traditional role of the man as bread-winner is “outdated”. The concept of the man as head of the family is assailed; that he should be head of the wife is labeled paternalistic. The woman works — not so much in her family as in her own job outside the home. Children are often regarded as unwanted, at least for the time being. If there are children, this is often disastrous for them. The day care center must assume the task of parent. The day care center … or the street.

2. The changing views on marriage. Marital morals are deteriorating. For many free love is the supreme good. Concepts such as “fidelity” and “divine institution” no longer apply in our time and clash with secularized thought. Commentators have repeatedly pointed out that in speaking of the last times Christ made a distinction between the days of Noah and the days of Lot, a distinction consisting in this, that being married and giving in marriage is mentioned of the days of Noah but not of the days of Lot (Luke 17:26–28). We would have to say that we live in the days of Lot.

3. The great influence of mass media on the family. Among us television is a feared medium, and rightly so, in my opinion. Every pastor, catechism teacher, or educator knows the disruptive force of this medium on the family structure. This Dagon dominates conversation, time, emotions, personal beliefs and public opinion.

There is a clear link between the indoctrinating influence of TV on the one hand and the increasing secularization, political liberalization, moral coarsening, and conceptual ethical deterioration of our society on the other. The constant dripping hollows out the stone. A frightening collectivization takes place — our nation cries in unison, laughs in unison, rejoices in unison and becomes indignant en masse. Those who “didn’t watch it” are included less and less. Suddenly the work of the beast that came up out of the earth stands before our eyes with alarming clarity. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16–17)

How do things stand amongst us with regard to the family as the foundation of Christian upbringing? To what extent have the influences of a secularized society outlined above passed us by? We may say that in general our children still grow up in a relatively protected environment. Yet we can indicate several forces which work to undermine the first pillar in our midst.

In the first place more children are enjoying higher education. In and of itself this fact need not signify danger for the family. Rev. G.H. Kersten unceasingly urged the youth of the congregation to pursue further training. But a possible source of conflict lies in the fact that the older generation is by and large not academically trained. Some parents have absolutely no realization of the completely different, totally secular world of the university town in which their children find themselves. Some studying children lack an eye for the great value of that which they have received at home and throw it out already in the first weeks of their studies as unnecessary ballast. In this way there arises in many families a grief on the side of the parents, a grief the depth of which it is difficult to appreciate, and an alienation from the parental home on the side of the children.

With regard to the influence of the present attitudes on our families we point out the increasing possession of TV. A noteworthy phenomenon in the context is the fact that the influence of this medium is less in many non-christian families than it is in “Christian” families where it is introduced.

The third breach which has been made in the family is the most serious. Were this third breach not there, the first two would be less serious. I am alluding to the fact that the family has lost its character of religious fellowship. Parents who actually see their children “instructed or help them to be instructed” are becoming scarcer and scarcer. Causing them to be instructed is still done but what shall the school begin if the family has lost its function as a religious fellowship? Herein lies the most serious breach which has been made in the first pillar. For many parents religion is not a matter which is talked about. Everything can be spoken of at some time in “our” families but not this. There are families in which the sermon, the necessity of being born again, or the value of the fear of God is never discussed. I am afraid that the number of such families is larger than we fear.

(continued with Part II in next issue)

Rev. A. Moerkerken

SQUELCH SINFUL ANGER!

Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous. Proverbs 27:4. …anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:9.

The way we face difficult and irritating situations shows more accurately than anything else our true character. Nothing is ever gained by surrendering to the dark passions of hatred and anger. In fact, we are told that uncontrolled wrath is a form of insanity. It can cause us to do and say things we may regret for the rest of our lives.

A woman once approach an evangelist and confessed that she had a very bad temper. She tried to cover up her sin by saying, “But Sir, although I blow up over the least little thing, it’s all over in a minute.” The evangelist looked at her and then said, “So is a shotgun blast! It’s over in seconds too, but look at the terrible damage it can do.” No, we must never excuse our explosions of anger, no matter how quickly they pass. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we should learn to control these base and sinful drives.

An unknown poet has written:
Put away all wrath and anger,
Every foolish, evil thing,
Or some blight your soul will suffer,
Others too will taste sin’s sting.
“Put away” — the words are simple,
But it takes Christ’s cleansing power;
“Put away” — let God sustain you
In temptation’s darksome hour!

Uncontrolled wrath can cause great anguish and heartbreak, and the damage is not easily repaired. Oh, what foolish and hurtful things result when we fail to squelch sinful anger!

When I have talked in anger
With my cheeks all flaming red,
I have always uttered something
Which I wish I had not said.

Anon

THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. James 3:2

Death was the verdict, for crimes he was tried.
His hope is cut off and pardon denied.
The command of the Lord was here not passed by.
“Who kills by the sword, by the sword he must die.”
He sits down in the chair which for him was prepared,
To be snatched from the world, whose pleasures he shared.
The blindfold, at first, bereaves him of sight.
Then life will be severed as one severs light.

What wonder amazing, to a criminal, thus bound,
When, in this last moment, his ears catch the sound:
“Take the blindfold away; Let him live for this time.
His friend, out of love, has died for his crime.”
Peradventure, this could happen in the life that we know.
Amazing ‘t would be, what love it would show.
That a man though would die for an enemy of his!
‘t would cause us to ask what truth therein is.

This wonder however, without doubt, has occurred,
When criminals, as sinners, this verdict have heard:
“Condemned by the curse, for breaking the law.
Death sentence for him; in Justice no flaw.”
What love then, from Him, who suffered and died
For enemies, who constantly His Kingdom denied,
To hear, when sentenced to death for “all times”:
“I have paid the ransom; I died for your crimes.”

F.J. Berman

STILL THE SAME AS BEFORE

Part 2

They are conscious of the fact that they miss that righteousness for themselves. They just cannot come to that point. That people cannot help themselves with all that life behind them, and cannot comfort themselves with what once has happened. Often they have a distressed life, and yet not distressed enough.

The handwriting, of which we read in God’s Word in Col. 2:14, is not yet blotted out and then it remains an open question whether it will ever take place. If we have no ground under our feet and no peace in our heart, then it is no wonder that the storms arise and that the foundations of the earth shake inwardly. No wonder that they then at times say, What was all that I formerly experienced?

Have they not grieved sometimes? O yes, but then the question comes, has it ever been deep enough and has it been a fruit of love to God? Sometimes they say, Esau also was grieved. He even sought a place of repentance with tears, but had never found the right place. Ahab also humbled himself, but it was no fruit of the humiliation of Christ and not a work of God the Holy Spirit.

They sometimes think, I have also been glad sometimes. Then they are sometimes reminded of people with temporary faith, who also received the word with joy, but they had no root, and because they lack the root of the true work of God, they therefore will fall back into the world. Although, of course, for themselves, they had never truly been drawn out of it.

And then there is something else. When the true life of God may be in us, then we are assailed and distressed with everything. Once they said of Saul, the first king of Israel, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” But how terrible was his end. Then there are those inward voices which can say much more than all the people in the world. Yes, sometimes it is so bad, by day and by night, that the sweat breaks out, and then no answer, nothing to cling to.

When they read the first part of Isaiah 58 and Hebrews 6, terror fills their heart, O, that realization of going to eternity, soon to appear before a Holy and righteous God, Who, outside of Christ, is a consuming fire and an everlasting burning, with Whom no one can dwell. When all this begins to press, then it is no wonder that a husband says to his wife, “Why are you so quiet?” The wife says to the husband, “What is the matter that you are so depressed?” For God’s poor people it becomes reality. Then to have sinned against God, and to be without God in the world, etc.

O, I know very well that there are many people in our days who shrug their shoulders at such language. Still worse, they possibly mock with it. That language is becoming unknown. It is greatly to be feared that the number of those who do not understand it is continually becoming greater. The knowledge, the real knowledge, of that which is necessary for the honor of God and our salvation is disappearing more and more.

We read in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” There is no strait gate or narrow way any more.

It is exactly as those new highways which have been made the last years: you find no curves in them anymore. It is all wide and easy driving. When we first came to America, just to mention an example, if we had to go through that big city of Chicago to go to Wisconsin or to the West, it sometimes took four to five hours before we were through it. Now there is a large four lane by-pass around the city so that at the most it takes two hours even when it is very busy. You do not have the narrow ways; no more waiting. They all go straight toward their destination.

Formerly, in Holland when we went through cities and towns, we had to stop here and there, and if we visited a God-fearing man or woman, who spoke of a godly life, it sometimes happened that we forgot about the time. What is it now?

To come once more to the language — the language of Canaan — then there are enough who dare to make the remark, is it necessary to learn and experience all that? If we learned to know of a change, is that not enough? O people, listen! Saul, the son of Kish, also was changed, but not renewed, Balaam was enlightened, but not sanctified.

Man must be renewed by the Spirit of God. He must be cut off from Adam and ingrafted into Christ. We must be converted unto God by God. We must learn to know of a sorrow after God, but also of a joy of heart in God through Christ. These are two necessary matters on the way to eternity. The one follows the other, but they are bound together. Consider, we cannot live by drawing conclusions, we cannot assure ourselves, but at the bottom of the heart of God’s people lies a sigh because of their need. Psalm 35:1.

Be Thou my helper in the strife,
O, Lord my strong defender be.

Psalter 92:1

What is then the desire of the heart? That they may one day be privileged to experience a time that they are able to say with full liberty, “It is so different now than it was before.”

What is then the longing of the soul? That they, as Paul writes in 1 Cor. 1:15, might receive a second benefit, and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18, “That is a fruitful, profitable, sin-mortifying, world-crucifying and God-glorifying life.” To be continued. Rev. W.C. Lamain

THE SHERWOOD GIPSY

Very early on Lord’s Day morning, June 9th, 1844, I rose with a desire to inhale fresh air from the hills of Sherwood, previous to attending chapel. The morning was exceedingly lovely, ten thousand charming monitors at once invited to a feast of fragrance and renewed to my mind those beautiful lines of Milton:

“Awake! the morning shines, and the fresh field calls you; ye lose the prime, to mark how spring the tender plants, how blows the citron grove; what drops the myrrh, and how the balmy reed; How nature paints her colours; how the bee sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.”

I felt my mind a little harassed, and clinging to worldly cares, and struggled against them in ardent prayer and supplication, that I might be delivered from them and might experience the blessedness of being “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” Sitting down in one of nature’s rural bowers, which was beautifully decorated with wild roses and woodbines, I opened my Testament and read Matthew 6:24–34, and felt my mind thereby greatly relieved and sweetly abstracted from worldly cares and anxieties. I arose from my rural bower with joy and renewed faith and strength, and bent my footsteps homeward, taking a circuit towards Mapperly Common.

I had not proceeded far when I perceived at some distance a gipsy camp, and the words: “Be instant in season, out of season,” came with great power to my mind. Pondering them over, I wondered what season was alluded to, and drawing near to the camp the admonition was repeated, which brought me to conclude that I must speak to the two females who were hanging some clothes on the hedge to dry. I first addressed a few words to the elder, who appeared bent beneath the load of some seventy years, but I could not understand a word she said in reply. I then made some observations to the other, who seemed about seventeen, of very interesting and prepossessing appearance — very tidy, though a little remarkable in her costume. She replied in a modest and becoming manner, yet accompanied with a searching and inquiring countenance, and appeared to be much on her guard. I retired a step or two, inclining to withdraw. The poor girl perceived this; and finding my conversation correct and chaste, she assumed more confidence and advanced towards me a few steps. I advanced also. I thought I could perceive the outlines of a consumptive habit and a sinking constituion, and her answers to my enquiries about her health confirmed my suspicion. While making these inquiries, she was tastefully arranging a bunch of beautiful wild roses. I observed that these flowers were lively emblems of man — which brought out the following conversation.

“Do you think they are?” she replied.

“Yes, most certainly I do, for the Book of God expressly declares that man “cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.” Again: “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more” (Job 14:2, Ps. 103:15).”

“O what full and great words! and how true. I never heard such words before.” said the gipsy girl.

“They are indeed great words! and my young friend, if I am not greatly mistaken, I fear your own health is sadly drooping, and will soon, like these flowers, wither away.”

“Do you really think so?” she questioned.

“I do indeed think so. Permit me seriously to counsel you.”

“To set your heart on better things
Than those on earth that bloom;
The fairest earthly flower that springs,
Will find an earthly doom.
For let you wander where you will,
Believe me while you live,
A something will be wanting still,
This world can never give.”

“O what sweet words! How they suit my feelings and condition; and how true they are.”

“Well, as you admire them so much, I have the little book in which the lines are contained and you shall have it; you are welcome.”

“O thank you; you are very kind. I am so glad you spoke to me. I have been very unhappy for a long time; but I have never said so much to anyone before.”

“Your present mode of life, I think, is not the best to make you happy.”

“Nor any other. It is not because I am a gipsy that makes me unhappy. I feel as if no condition in the world could make me happy. I have no desires after the world; indeed my heart and feelings are dead to the world, I have never opened my heart to anyone in this way.”

“May I be allowed to ask what it is that makes you unhappy, and dead to the world?”

“O, it will make me sorry and ashamed to tell you I am wicked. I feel very wrong. I am sure were I to die, according to my feelings, I could not be with God, for God cannot be wicked. It is true that I am a very dark and ignorant girl, and know very little of what people call religion.”

“My dear young friend take encouragement. God has taught you, and is teaching you, and I believe and am persuaded that He will in a short time reveal Himself to your soul, as a God of love and mercy through Jesus Christ. Almost everybody will confess that they are sinners and wicked; but I am afraid very few are unhappy or have any godly sorrow in consequence thereof. You say you are dark, and know but little about religion. I rejoice that you know so much. God has already caused the light to shine upon your understanding, which makes manifest your darkness and leads you to lament and deplore your ignorance; therefore you should be encouraged. May I ask you, do you ever feel a disposition to pray?”

“I really do not know how to answer that question. If at any moment I feel a little happy, or anything like prayer in my heart, it is when I am alone and looking up to the blue sky and thinking about the great God that made me and all I see. I think I should like to know more about Him, and to love Him and to be with Him and tell Him all I feel; but I cannot think this is prayer.”

“My dear young woman, God does not only listen to the cry of the needy and regard the prayer of the destitute, but He understands our plaintive breathings and broken accents. Let me recite a verse.”

“Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear;
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.”

“That is very pretty. What you say does make me so very lightsome.”

“You admire the streams, and they are sweet; but let me lead you to the fountain: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26).”

“That is very encouraging. O how surprising these things are to me! I am so glad you spoke to me.”

“I am pleased also, and hope God will impart unto you the Spirit of grace and of supplications. I have found a very encouraging word here to every poor brokenhearted sinner. Permit me to read it to you: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is Jesus Christ, God’s Son, that gives the invitation; and it is addressed to all such poor, heavy-laden, sinburdened creatures as you feel yourself to be. Jesus encourages us to come to Him, and to rest upon Him, as our only Refuge; and to confide in Him, as the Rock of our salvation. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of the sheep, that goeth into the wilderness, seeking out and bringing back that which was lost.”

“O they are very sweet words, and full of comfort. I am so glad,” the gipsy girl volunteered.

“Hear me read another precious portion: “This is worthy of all acception, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”“

“O what words are those you have just read! They do go to my heart and make me blithe. Did you really read them out of the Book?”

“Most certainly. Look over me, and I will point out every word,” Mr. Hervey suggested.

“I am not a very good reader.”

“Well, then, this Testament will just suit you; and you shall have it. Every syllable is divided and every hard word is explained at the foot of the page. You will soon be able to read it well.”

“You are very good and kind. I am so glad you spoke to me. I shall love this blessed Book; there are so many kind things in it.”

“Yes, there are indeed, It is a blessed Book.”
“Kind is the language of our Lord,
There’s heavenly grace in every word;
From His dear Book a stream divine
Flows sweeter than the choicest wine.”

“Will you be good enough to mark the places where you have been reading,” she asked.

“All the passages I have read to you are marked; but I will mark a few others. Let me recommend you to read all the Book, and I hope it may please a gracious God to convey the truths it contains to your heart with power. I must now leave you.”

“I am sorry to part; but I am sure I shall never forget the things you have said to me. Will you stay and take some breakfast? It shall be ready in a trice.”

“I thank you, but I cannot stay another minute I have a long way to go home and then I have to go to Nottingham to my “Sunday School”.”

“O, a Sunday School! I have heard talk of Sunday Schools, I should like to see one, for they must be delightful places.”

“They are indeed; and I think you might see one.”

“O no, I cannot. We leave early in the morning for Cumberland.”

“Pray how did you learn to read?”

“An old man that was with us learnt me to read; but he is now dead. He had an old Bible, but they buried it with him in the coffin, which I thought wrong.”

“Is that aged person your mother? What is the reason that she appears so cross?”

O never mind. She thinks we are talking about religion, and nothing can offend her more. She is a fortune teller.”

I now took my leave of this interesting wanderer, but not without much feeling on both sides; indeed the poor girl was all in tears. She hoped I would not think her rude, but a thought came into her mind how she would like to write to me, if I would allow her to do so. I encouraged her to write me a few lines at any time, and wrote my name and address in the Testament.

Many months passed away without hearing from her. I often had anxious thoughts concerning her, and frequently my mind was engaged in humble prayer at the throne of grace on her account, but at length began to despair of ever hearing from her any more. On the evening of February 1st, 1845, I had many thoughts about her, and to my surprise the next day a letter came from her, which was as follows:

Blackwood, Maidstone

Feb. 1st, 1845

Dear Friend, — Perhaps you have forgotten the young woman you discoursed with on the Common near Nottingham several months ago; but if you have forgotten me, I have not forgotten you. Since that time I have been very ill, and in great trouble and distress; and am now informed that I cannot live many days, being in the last stage of consumption. I feel as if I could not die happy without letting you know how precious Jesus Christ has been to my soul. The precious words you spoke to me on the Common have been more to my soul than a thousand worlds could possibly have been. By night and day I have almost thought I could hear your voice declaring again and again: “This is worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” O blessed — a thousand times blessed — have those words been to poor me. O how good and gracious was the divine goodness of God to lead your feet to the Common that blessed Sabbath morning: and to speak to me, a poor wandering gipsy. For the sake of the cross of Jesus Christ I have suffered many things from the old woman you saw; but God’s spirit has comforted me in it all. The little books and Testaments you gave me have been made very precious to me. I could almost say they have been my meat and drink by night and day. O what has not God done for me, a poor orphan girl! I can truly say, when my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord did take me up. My blessed Jesus has been father and mother, brother and friend, and everything beside. O my dear father Hervey, I hope to see you in heaven, where we shall sing together: “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Rev. 1:5). I cannot write any more.

Goodbye, my dear Mr. Hervey.

your gipsy friend

Matilda Harrison

Reply to above.

Carrington, Nottingham

Feb. 2nd, 1845

My dear Matilda, — I have received your letter; and scarcly know how to address a few words to you in reply. I exceedingly regret that the distance is so great; otherwise I would soon be with you to receive your dying testimony from your own lips, and soothe your dying pillow. But my absence is of little moment. One will be with you — even your blessed Saviour — who will administer all that grace and consolation which your present circumstances require. I rejoice with you that we met on the Common on “that blessed Sabbath morning.” There was no accident or chance connected with it — but all according to divine arrangements and infinite love. O let us, then, admire and adore the goodness and wisdom of God! I rejoice that the little books were made useful to you: they were little things of themselves — but nothing can be little when accompanied with divine power. I am sorry that the old woman should so persecute you; but I am sure that your enlightened and gently spirit would indulge in no resentment; but pity, forgive, and pray for her.

My dear sister in Jesus; you are now passing through the valley of the shadow of death; but your blessed Jesus is with you — the light of His countenance shines upon your soul, and His presence dispels all the gloom and darkness. You lean upon His almighty arm and find Him strong to support.

My dear Matilda, farewell. May it please almighty God to gently untie the cords of nature, and minister an abundant entrance for you into the realms of eternal day.

Yours affectionately, in the ties of the gospel,

Anthony Hervey

On March 23rd I received the following letter announcing the death of Matilda.

Blackwood, Maidstone

March 20th, 1845

Dear Sir, — Matilda Harrison, our dear sister in camp, is no more. I am instructed to give her dying words and affections to you. She received your letter on the 27th February. I am sorry you had not a correct direction; which was the reason it did not find us sooner. Matilda was dying when we received your letter, but she was sensible to hear it read, and was very happy to hear it. She then directed me to send you ten shillings, which was all she was worth in the world: and then said: “O my blessed Jesus, take care of dear Mr. Hervey, and bring him safe to heaven. And now, Lord, let Thy handmaid depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, and all my desires are fulfilled.”

We are overwhelmed with sorrow at the death of Matilda. She was more like an angel than a mortal being. She was always speaking about you, and praying to almighty God to bless you. We hope we shall not forget the good counsel she gave us. Should we come again to your town, we shall try and see you. A few hours before Matilda died, she sang very sweetly a verse out of one of your little books.

“The Saviour sought me wandering far
From happiness and God;
And to redeem my guilty soul,
He shed His precious blood.”

Hoping you will receive this. I am, Your obedient servant,

George Tindal

(In recommending this touching account of sovereign grace, published 100 years ago, Mr. Roberts, the minister of the chapel where Mr. Hervey attended, says: “How true is that word: ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof; but canst not tell whence it Cometh, and whither it goeth: So is every one that is born of the Spirit.’”)

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