"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of LifeOsborne, Zenas
Religion
"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of Life
Osborne, Zenas
Free Methodist Church of North America; Osborne, Zenas
At this time I was at a camp-meeting in another part of the state
helping Bro. William Cooley. Hearing of the great blessing that my
wife had received, I concluded that it would not be necessary for me
to take another long trip, to go home to see if I could not persuade
her to come with me, but that she would immediately pack up and move
on to the big circuit with me, which, thank God, she did. But O, how
changed! I had emphatically a new wife. I had always thought her the
best woman on earth; now I knew that she was. We then saw eye to eye
in the great work to which God had called us. And O, how precious the
communion we had with each other and the Lord, during her brief stay
on earth after this occurrence. In less than two years she peacefully
passed away to be forever with the Lord.
I relate this circumstance to show what things we have to overcome
sometimes, in order to enter the ministry. And then, how strangely
God manages to bring us where our eyes may be opened to see just what
he wants us to see. It is well expressed by the poet:
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.”
More than a quarter of a century has passed into eternity since most
of the events narrated occurred; and in looking over the past, and
the way in which God led us into the ministry, the trials, conflicts,
victories, and the many times in which He has marvelously delivered
us out of the hands of all our enemies, and brought to our aid
reinforcements, and just the help needed, and just at the right time,
our heart goes out in wonder, love and praise.
The promise of the Lord to me was: “For as much as ye know that your
labor is not in vain in the Lord.” O, how comforting that Scripture
has been to me. When on hard fields of labor, and when it seemed
as though very little if anything, accomplished, the above word of
the Lord would come to my heart with such an assurance, and in such
sweetness that I have been made to rejoice in the goodness of the
Lord to me.
We are often placed in a position, allowing the world to judge, would
call it a tremendous defeat. But in obeying the voice of God there
is no defeat. We may not always see just what we have done, the good
accomplished. Perhaps it is best we should not. Spiritual pride might
find way into our heart and destroy us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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