OUR FATHER! by Mrs. Carrie Butcher

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 3, 1904

“OUR FATHER!”

By Mrs. Carrie Butcher

BY MRS. CARRIE BUTCHER.

AND dare I, a frail worm of the dust, presume thus to address the great and mighty God? the “Creator of all things,” “the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity?”

Yes. O my soul, wonderful as it seems, this is indeed thy exalted privilege; and not thine only, but to every member of our fallen race comes the glorious tidings, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” O, ye tempted, care-worn ones, lift up your eyes to Him whence comes your help.

Since the Only-begotten of the Father, Jesus Christ our Saviour, “hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust,” we may reckon ourselves free. From Calvary’s rugged brow comes the glorious declaration: “It is finished!” Hail, all hail! Thou blessed Son of God! who didst take upon Thyself the form of a man, and humbled Thyself, “and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” that a guilty, ruined, helpless race might have hope. Shout, O heavens! be glad, O earth! for, lo, the son of Mary comes forth Conqueror over death, hell, and the grave, and hath ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, making intercession for us! Praise His holy name! “He is able . . . to save them unto the uttermost, that come unto God by Him.”

Inasmuch as we who are afar off are now “made nigh by the blood of Christ,” let us “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” more especially since God Himself hath declared us to be joint-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, and hath called us to be sons and daughters. O, shall we think of Him as a stern, unyielding judge, a hard master?—No, no. He is our Shepherd, and we the sheep of His pasture.

Now, O child of God, dare to assert your rights. Take the blessed Word, your Father’s will and testament to you, and, reaching out for your possessions, claim them, remembering, as God said to ancient Israel regarding their promised inheritance, “Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” Joshua 1:3. So He is saying unto you, They that believe enter into rest, “Him that cometh to Me I will in nowise cast out.” “According to your faith be it unto you.” Every promise that you step out upon, claim by faith, is yours, if you will meet the conditions of repentance and a turning away from your sins. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Take Christ for your abiding, indwelling life. For “in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Red Oak, Texas.