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GREATLY BELOVED

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 26.

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GREATLY BELOVED.

By Fannie Bolton

(Concluded.)
MRS. BROWN opened the door at her neighbor’s knock, and Mrs. Patterson did not wait for any formalities, but put her arms around her and looked into her eyes. The great tears ran down both faces, and there was no need of words. Mrs. Brown took Mrs. Patterson’s baby to her breast, and sobbed:—
“O my own darling! O Mrs. Patterson, he was my idol, and why, O, why has God taken him away?”
“Because you and he are greatly beloved. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. It is to fill you with his peace and joy. God knows how to pity you, for he himself lost his only-begotten Son. It is to help you to realize how he loved you. O, think what it cost the Father to give his darling up to bear our sins, to carry our griefs and to suffer our sorrows! My dear soul, your baby is not lost, but loved, greatly beloved. O, you are greatly beloved!”
What it was that finally brought contrition and comfort to her stricken neighbor’s heart God only knows, but it is certain that before Mrs. Patterson went home, another soul rejoiced in the midst of sorrow, and was comforted by the rod of God. The love of God began to flow through the heart that had been as a stagnant pool, and it was as a stream of living water.
When the children came from school, Mrs. Patterson gathered them in her arms, and told them for the first time of Jesus and his love. Their little hearts were melted and won. Jesus has said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.” They only need to be permitted to see the lovely face of our Lord, and they know the Good Shepherd.
Mr. Patterson came slowly home. His head was bowed, his shoulders stooped. Mrs. Patterson watched from the doorway, and wondered that she had not noticed before how broken and sad and old he looked. He had been such a bonny lad. “Poor darling!” she half sobbed. He was not expecting to see her. It had been a long time since she watched for him at the door. She was generally busy with supper or with baby, and simply greeted him with, “So you are home at last, and supper is cold as a stone waiting for you.” But to-night there she was at the door, looking so bright, almost as pretty as when she was a girl, with a neat dress on and a ribbon at her throat. He looked at her and then looked past her to see if they had company. Then she drew him in, sat down beside him on the lounge, and smoothed back his hair, and kissed him.
“Something has happened, Steven,” she said. “God has been here to-day. O Steven, we are all greatly beloved!” She went on eagerly, pouring into his heart the light that had been shed into her own, till the great tears forced themselves through his closed eyelids.
“Yes, it is all true, Mamie darling,” he said, as she related the way they had treated God, and kept him out of their home. “We have backslidden. I have blamed him for the results of my own sins.”
Never mind, we are greatly beloved. She got the Bible and read again the wonderful chapter, and before they went to supper, they gathered their little ones, and bowed around their first altar.
“And heaven came down, their souls to meet, And glory crowned the mercy-seat.”
How tender was the blessing that was asked upon the supper! How wonderful were the words that were spoken at that meal where for the first time they truly realized that the bread was the Bread of life! That food was given only by virtue of the life and death of the Son of God, that it all was the corn of heaven, the bread of Love’s sacrifice. There was something sacred about it all, and even the little children were softened and quiet.
“Now, Steve, to-night is prayer-meeting night at the mission. I’ll put baby to sleep, and the children to bed, and Mary will look after them, and let us go to meeting.”
It was a wonderful meeting to these two starved souls. The humble people who gave in a warm testimony to the love of God, seemed no longer beneath them in station, but, O, how far superior! Mrs. Patterson again repented of pride and selfishness. She rose, and, with a shining face, related what God had done for her soul. She praised his name. She encouraged the hearts of all by delivering to them the precious message that had so melted her heart. “O, if there is a soul here,” she said, “who feels his worthlessness, who thinks his life is a failure, who knows he is a sinner, who feels like crying out, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’ that is the soul who can claim this word, ‘Thou art greatly beloved!’”
There was a thrill ran through the little meeting. The minister rose and invited any such soul to come to Christ, and the altar was filled with those who were broken in heart. Mrs. Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Patterson, who had only just learned to believe, went forward to tell the poor souls how simple was the way of faith, how easy God had made the path to the lost and undone. And the River of Life flowed through these humble channels to the poor, sad hearts that cried unto the Lord.
“O Steven, it is only a week ago to-night since we gave our hearts to God!” said Mrs. Patterson, “and it has been the happiest week of my life. I know all the neighbors and their children. We are to have a cottage prayer-meeting here to-night. Some souls have been brought, as we were, out of darkness into light. My hands and yours are so full of church work and work for humanity that I believe we ought to ask God to give us power to do twenty people’s work. O, how wonderful are his ways, past finding out except as he himself reveals them!”
“Yes, I have had a song of rejoicing all the week. I know we are greatly beloved of God. ‘Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.’ O, it is amazing!” said Mr. Patterson. Then he read the 3d of John, and they talked over its verses in preparation for the cottage meeting. The neighbors who came in went home glad, believing in the love that God hath toward us. “Why is it that we are so precious each to the other now, and Christ is precious to us?” asked Mr. Patterson as the meeting closed. “It is because we are precious to him. Don’t you know, greatly beloved?” O, how I want to tell everybody how God loves him, because faith in his great love will utterly transform life! Dearly beloved, let us always hereafter keep ourselves in the faith of this great love. It won’t be long before we shall see his face and be like him. Heaven itself will only be the unfolding of this beautiful Word, only the interpretation of its widening meaning, and eternity will not be large enough to tell us what it is to be greatly beloved of our God. Father, Saviour, Brother, Lover, and King. Praise unto the Father and the Son forever.