'IN JESU'S KEEPING'
At the annual 'Roll Call Meeting,' held in Wesley Hall, Aldershot, in
January, 1900, we took as our 'Motto' for the next twelve months the
words of Bishop Bickersteth's beautiful hymn--
'In Jesu's keeping we are safe, and they.'
All of us had friends in South Africa. Most of us had relatives there;
and as we bowed in prayer together we thought of the famous prayer of
long ago: 'The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one
from another.'
All the way through we have realized that there was a God of love
watching between us. All the way through we have been quite certain that
'in Jesu's keeping' they were safe.
Some of them we shall never see again on earth, but they are still 'in
Jesu's keeping.' Some of them are still far away from us fighting for
their country. But they, too, are 'in Jesu's keeping,' and for them we
are not afraid. We said 'Good-bye' many months ago, but it meant 'God be
with you,' and our farewell prayer has been answered. _Here_ or _there_
we expect to clasp hands with them again.
And the comfort that has been ours in Old England has been theirs in
South Africa. They, too, have thought of loved ones far away. They, too,
have realized--
'In Jesu's keeping we are safe, and they.'
'The Soldier's Psalm' has been read and rejoiced in all through South
Africa.
'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my
refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Thou shall not
be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by
day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the
destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come
nigh thee.... He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will
be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With
long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.'
Chanted in many a service, repeated in the darkness on outpost duty,
remembered even amid the fury of the battle, this Soldiers' Psalm has
been to thousands a source of comfort and strength.
* * * * *
With its blessed words ringing in our ears we close this book. The war
is not yet over. Disease has not yet claimed all its victims. The
fateful bullet has not delivered its final message of death. But our
loved ones are 'in Jesu's keeping,' and we are content to leave them
there. With them and with us it may be 'Peace, perfect peace.'
Butler & Tanner. The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
End of Project Gutenberg's From Aldershot to Pretoria, by W. E. Sellers