b y Betty Bruechert
Love Thee?
i s
one die; yet peradventure for a good man [or for a member of one’s family, or a friend] some would even dare to die; but God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:5-7); “We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). When, in my teens, I first heard the Good News that He, the spotless, infinite One, had died in my room and stead, taking the blow that I deserved for my sin, the reserves of my nature were broken up, and I loved Him, my Lord, and my God, from my heart. Christian tells of his experience in Pilgrim’s Progress: “ He ran until he came to a place somewhat ascend ing: and upon that place stood a cross, and a little be low, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the Cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do so, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and light some, and said with a merry heart, He hath given me rest by His sorrow, and life by His death. Then he stood a while to look and wonder for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should ease him of his burden.” This is the initial step in the Christian life without which there is no spiritual reality. All else is mere pro fession, not personal possession. Until the sinner sees in Christ, the Redeemer, the Lamb of God who takes away his sin, and believes upon Him as his Deliverer from eternal, spiritual death, he can have no actual knowledge of the living God. “ No man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” declared the Lord Jesus. Deliverance from Tears “ How do I love Thee? Let me count the ways. Thou hast delivered mine eyes from tears.” Early we learn the salt taste of tears. We weep for broken homes, broken lives, broken promises. We weep for disillusionment, be trayal, bereavement. And as Tennyson wrote: “That loss is common would not make Dr. David Otis Fuller has written: “ More tears have been shed in this old world than blood. They are shed for myriad reasons. Watchful, bloodshot eyes keep vigil through the long night beside the bedside of a dying loved one. And in the gray mist of early morning, with the break of dawn, the parting time comes. And tears flow unchecked and unheeded as one more soul answers the last roll call on earth. Little children are crying in the world tonight, crying for food to nourish wasted bodies, crying for a mother’s love, a father’s care; in orphan asylums, crying for burning, stabbing pain to stop! stop! stop! as they lie on beds or cots, or perhaps too poor to My own less bitter, rather more: Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.”
T o t LONG AGO I met a friend on the street and we _ i paused to chat. In the course of our conversation, he said with a chuckle: “ Let me tell you what my young est granddaughter told me the other day, ‘Grandpa, I love you so much I can’t count.’ ” Laughingly, I shared his pleasure in this felicitous expression of affection. As I continued on my way, I pondered that delightful, unfinished statement of the little girl: “ I love you so much I can’t count.” It reminded me of the opening lines of one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s exquisite sonnets to her husband Robert: “ How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” As I recalled the remainder of those lovely lines, my heart was moved as always, for I too had loved my dear husband in those “ ways,” and he is with the Lord. “With the Lord”—ah, that turned my thoughts to the Saviour, and I began to apply Mrs. Browning’s words to Him: “ How do I love Thee? Let me count the ways.” There are ten thousand times ten thousand ways in which I love the Lord Jesus Christ. Three of these ways are described in Psalm 116: “ I love the Lord be cause he hath heard my voice and my supplications . . . For thou has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling” (vv. 1, 8). Deliverance from Death “ How do I love Thee? Let my count the ways. Thou has delivered my soul from death . . .” It was as my Deliverer from death that I first came to know and love the Son of God. I do not refer to physi cal death, for it may be that unless He comes for His own erelong, I shall “ walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” But it is of no consequence; “ whether by life or by death, we are the Lord’s.” It is the soul which has been delivered from death — spiritual death — the end of which without His salvation is everlasting hell. He has “ delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son . . .” (Col. 1:13). There is a remarkable rapport between two persons, if one has saved the life of the other. I think of a lad whose grandmother gave him artificial respiration when he had stopped breathing; of a woman who was saved from drowning by three small girls; of a man who pulled his friend from a wrecked airplane seconds before it burst into flames. Recently the press carried the account of the incredible courage of a mother who rescued from a burning house not only her invalid husband, but also her eight children. Re-entering the flame and smoke time after time, and incurring fearful burns in the process, one by one she carried out the precious burdens. Be tween the rescued and the rescuers there is a relationship not experienced by other people. But all deeds of valor and devotion pale beside the death of Christ for the sins of the whole world. “ For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will
THE KING'S 8USINESS
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