Go back with me a few months
to a scene in a little mountain home in which the lifeless body of the
husband and father has just been taken from the river, where he had been
found dead. Try to realize the anguish and grief of the young mother as
she holds to his lifeless hand and in her arms clasps a new born babe,
while three other small children huddle about her, holding to her skirts,
crying and asking "Why doesn't daddy talk to us?"
Recently in my house to house
visitation, I called at his home and heard the story of this man who had
been a kind and true husband, a good and loving father.
I had heard how they had
arranged to make improvements on their cabin home, and when God would bless
them with a little one, how they would make plans for its future and education.
The cheeks of this widowed
mother were wet from weeping as shed told me to how they missed him, and
of the great love he had for her and the children.
Across the room in a cradle
was the form of a small child. My thoughts went back through the years
to another Babe—not in a cradle, but in a rough manger from which the cattle
were fed. I told this mother the story of the Child Jesus, how that He
grew to manhood and was nailed to the Cross on Calvary for her, and that
just now He was waiting with outstretched arms to receive her, Whose great
love and tender mercies would soften the ache and heal the wound that was
caused by the loss of her husband. Though I read Scripture after Scripture
and had prayer, I left her with rebellion in her heart because of her loss.
We prayed many times for
this mother and her home. The time came and the burden was so great for
her soul that I just had to go back, though she lived in another county
many miles from our home. When I returned, she said, "I am getting along
better and life seems much brighter since you were here." She still refused
to surrender her all to God. I left her living in the past, holding on
to the memory of her dead husband. We continued to pray for her and decided
to go and talk to her again, my wife going along with me. This time when
we left she was smiling through tears—but tears of joy, for she had found
her Savior. She followed us out and said, "There is no other way but God."
In another community in which
I was doing personal work, following a small trail and calling on all the
homes along the way, I came to a foot path which led off the road and over
through a small woodland. It seemed as though something just forced me
to follow this path, which I did, through the woods, across a small ravine
and to a small home in which lived a young married couple and their small
child. The wife had already been born again, but the husband was not saved,
nor would he accept the Lord then, but he did promise that he and his wife
would pray that night, and before he slept he would surrender his all to
Him.
They didn't have a Bible,
just a small Testament. The next time I was in that community I took them
a Bible. The lady met me on the porch and told me how happy they were and
how kind and good her husband was and said, "Ours is a new home because
of Jesus."
We request all of God's people
to keep us before the Throne of Grace that we may be used to win many souls
to His kingdom, and for health to carry on through the bad weather and
so much sickness. |