A YOUTH is resting beside a bank, while some cows, over which he keeps watch, graze quietly not far off. A stranger passing hears him softly singing. and pauses to catch the words of his song:—
“Jesus! my hearts dear refuge,
Jesus has died for me.”
“Is He your refuge?” she enquires. “Yes, lady,” replies the youth, “I have known Him two years.”
The stranger heard the quiet words, but the expression of the young man’s face had deeper language, for it told of settled peace within, and a heart at rest before God.
“Jesus has died for me; I have known Him two years,” was his simple tale: what a world of meaning these few words convey!
How different his case from another’s whose sad unrestful expression could tell of no peace within, even had her lips not confessed it to one who remarked, speaking of her years of suffering, “Well, this has been a sad world to you—have you a bright hope of another?” The weary face looked even more sad as she replied, “I hope so ma’am, I am trying hard for it, and have done my best for the last forty years.”
In the one case the burden of sins had been removed by the death of the Lord Jesus, and acquaintance with Himself, and His praises were filling the heart; while in the other the lifetime spent in doing her “best” had failed to give peace or assurance of salvation, and the Divine Person at God’s right hand was quite unknown.
Reader, are you trusting in this Blessed One, whose work can give you perfect peace? or are you doing your best to earn forgiveness, and only “hoping?”
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matt. 1: 28-29. Selected.
ML 11/05/1899