hearts. We are filled throughout by the highest love towards Him. We turn our hearts at the same time to ward the brethren whom He has so intimately linked with us, and for whom also He sacrificed Himself. Once a man has attained this union with Christ, he will await quietly and composedly the blows of fate, he will bravely oppose the storms of pas sion and endure undaunted the rage of the wicked. For who can crush him; who can rob him of his Re deemer?” Would anyone dare to say that this young man didn’t know the truth? Yet, knowing is not believing. The proof of that statement comes in the fact that the young man who wrote that essay was Karl Marx as a student in a Christian school in Germany. He knew the plan of salvation and all about sanctification. He knew what union with Christ means as well as service for the Master. But while he knew it, he didn’t believe it. History records that Karl Marx left his home and turned his back upon God. He e m b r a c e d dialectical materialism known better as Godless atheism. He wrote his diabolical theses and his suc cessor today is none other than the head of the Union of the Soviet So cialist Republic. The man who ulti mately put Joseph Stalin into office was Karl Marx, a person who knew the truth of the Word of God. Yet he is one who must bear the responsibili ty for the untold sufferings through communism, the hatred, the bitterness, the misery in the world today. Am I writing to someone like these two examples? The first young man, a very fine church member, said, “Sure, I knew it all. I taught it, but I never personally received Jesus Christ as my own Saviour.” Have you? Are you just a good Presbyter ian, or a good Baptist, or a good Epis copalian, or a good Lutheran, or a good anything else? It is true, you know, “knowing is not believing." There must come a day when, with childlike faith, you realize that you are a sinner and that only the Lord Jesus Christ can save you. Will you
say, “Blessed Lord, in childlike faith, I want to trust you as my own per sonal Saviour.” God grant that every-
BETTER THAN WE ASKED I prayed for strength: and then I lost awhile All sense of nearness, human and divine: The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart. The hands I clung to loosed them selves from mine; But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone, The everlasting arms upheld my own. I prayed for light; the sun went down in clouds, The moon was darkened by a misty doubt: The stars of heaven were dimmed by earthly fears, And all my little candle flames burned • out: But~yyhile I sat in the shadow, wrap ped in night, The face of Christ made all the dark ness light. I prayed for peace, and dreamed of restful ease. A slumber drugged from pain, a hushed repose: Above my head the skies were black with storm, And fiercer grew the onslaught of my foes:' But while the battle raged, and wild winds blew, I heard His voice and perfect peace I knew. I thank Thee, Lord, Thou wert too wise to heed My feeble prayers, and answer as I sought, Since' these rich gifts Thy bounty hath bestowed Have brought me more than all I asked or thought; Giver of good, so answer each request With Thine own giving, better than the best!
one of us may not only know but may also truly believe for His name’s sake. 25
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