Between Us and God

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 42.

Between Us and God.

The following are solemn words, conveying truths worthy of remembrance, which J. Fenimore Cooper puts into the lips of one of his heroes. He is speaking of keeping word with the Indians, which a companion considered better broken, because it involved personal danger:—

This furlough is not, as you seem to think, a matter altogether atween me and the Mingoes, seeing it is a solemn bargain made atween me and God. He who thinks that he can say what he pleases in his distress, and that, ’twill all pass for nothing, because ’tis uttered in the forest, and into red men’s ears, knows little of his situation and hopes and wants. The words are said to the ears of the Almighty. The air is His breath, and the light of the sun is little more than a glance of His eye. Farewell, Harry; we may not meet ag’in; but I would wish you never to treat a furlough, or any other solemn thing that your Christian God has been called on to witness, as a duty so light that it may be forgotten according to the wants of the body, or even according to the cravings of the spirit!

Every moral question is a matter between ourselves and God.