Actual Deliverance in the Promises
By W. A. S.
AMONG other testimonies to the Lord’s delivering providences borne by Mr. A. E. Glover in his story of the flight from the province of Shan-si during the Chinese Boxer uprising of some years ago, is the following narrative: Having escaped many times from those who were seeking their lives and who were yet unable to strike the blow, the fugitives spent a night on top of a high hill, where they hoped to hide from pursuers. Next day they were burning up under the tropical sun, having had no water for such a time that their tongues were indeed failing for thirst. All the waves and billows of trouble seemed to have rolled over them at last, and Mrs. Glover sank fainting and lay prostrate and helpless on the ground. Mr. Glover says:— As I watched her panting and gasping for breath, with no power to alleviate her suffering beyond supporting her head, it seemed as if I heard the serpent’s hiss: “Yea, hath God said? Where are his promised mercies and loving-kindness now? Has he not forgotten to be gracious?” The cruel taunt was winged to the heart of my beloved, too; and in an agony of soul she cried out from the deep darkness: “Oh, God has forsaken us! It can only be that we are not in his will, or he would surely never have suffered us to come to this.” Her distress physically was such that I felt sure she was dying; but it was as nothing to the trouble of her soul. Now indeed it seemed as if the enemy’s triumph was assured. The cup of sorrow was overfull; and, conscious that this was the “scourging” of the Lord, I was dumb under his rebuke. My heart was utterly broken before him. But “when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” The moment of our deliverance was at hand. . . . Scarcely had the words of anguish passed my precious one’s lips when God put into Miss Gates’s mouth the most wonderful song of praise I have ever heard. Kneeling by the side of her prostrate sister and holding her hand, she poured forth passage after passage, promise after promise, from the Word, exalting his name, declaring his faithfulness, and proving his unchanging and unchangeable love, sworn to us in the everlasting covenant and sealed to us in the blood of his own beloved Son. Never shall I forget the music of that heavenly utterance. It was as if heaven were open above us, and the strains of the harps of God were being borne to us from glory. My beloved Flora drank it in—O, how eagerly!—with the avidity of a soul athirst for God, the living God. Together we drank “out of the wells of salvation”—with what joy I cannot express—deep drafts of the pure river of water of life, flowing freely to us now from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The time had come at last for him to reveal himself to us. Our eyes were opened, and we knew him; and the word of his promise was fulfilled to the letter, “A Man shall be . . . as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Instantly the darkness was past, and the true light was shining again. With stammering tongues the little party repeated to the very finish the six stanzas of the hymn,— “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.”
Having found a bit of shelter in the shade, the party still tarried to escape the blazing sun, while the children were moaning for water, with tongues so swollen that they could not articulate the word. Just then came another blow. Miss Gates swooned away and fell unconscious to the ground. Mr. Glover continues:— It was a new and critical emergency, in the presence of which all the old helplessness came over me. As my dear wife and I were pleading with God for her recovery, I heard a word behind me as distinctly as if it were spoken in my ear: “Up, get thee down and tarry not.” I said to my wife, “Come, darling, we must gather up what strength remains to us and go down to the water. It is not the will of God that we should remain here any longer.” Then, taking Miss Gates by the arm, I bent over her and said: “Dear sister, we must be going without delay. In the name of the Lord Jesus, get up.” In a moment consciousness was restored, and she rose up with strength renewed from on high. With such a confirmation that the thing was of God, and in the assurance that the Lord our God, he it was who was going before us, we left our hiding place and once more adventured ourselves into the open. There below us, away in the not far distance, was the thin streak of silver glancing in the sunlight; the “still waters” to which our Shepherd-Lord9was leading us at last. What that sight now was to our longing eyes I can never tell—the joy of pointing it out to the darling children, and of seeing the faintest smile dawn over the sad, suffering little features! In a few moments they were actually wading into midstream, putting their lips to the surface and drinking to the full.