BROOKLYN, N.Y., OCTOBER 28TH, 1940
BROOKLYN, N.Y., OCTOBER 28TH, 1940
Beloved Brother, — Our dear brethren in London and suburban area are constantly on our hearts, indeed it is hard to keep from ‘torment’ as we think of you all and of our suffering brethren elsewhere in Great Britain, but the Lord in His priestly grace helps, enabling us to maintain a balanced mind.
The whole position calls for calm consideration, for its very extraordinariness makes one see that our God is in it in a special way. His thoughts bear on the whole of humanity, on its governments and especially on the Christian profession. Thus He would look for us to be with Him, as Abraham went [p. 205] with Him toward Sodom. I know it is easy for those of us who are far away from the scene of suffering to speak thus, but I am assured that the sufferers will come through with the greatest gain. There will be rich fruits from their sowing in tears. The Lord is with you in the ordeals and you are learning from Him in your peculiar sorrows as you could not otherwise. Besides the whole assembly is gaining. Of this I am certain, observing the effect of the pressure on the brethren as I move among them.
London has received precious light during the last hundred years or more and has definitely responded to it. God has observed this and gauged the result in His people and now has allowed this affliction to bring out its fragrance, also to increase it, effecting conditions for the translation of the assembly to heaven according to promise. How glorious the prospect! There will be precious disclosures of His mind to you all, I believe, as you are with Him (Genesis 18), enduring what others have also to endure, but in the saints, as sustained by His grace, after the pattern of Christ. That the service of God should go on day in and day out amid such anxiety and discomfort is surely of the greatest importance in the eyes of heaven.
The bereavements that have taken place in your area and in Scotland have especially touched our hearts. But while we feel for the dear bereaved ones we think of their loved ones taken as happily with their Saviour — to go no more out for ever. During the last war as often thinking of the myriads suffering and dying in France and elsewhere on battlefields, I found comfort in the fact that in a short time we all should be gone either through death or translation. How remarkable that now civilians, men, women and children — are standing the brunt of the war! Is not God in this too!
With our united love in Christ to you both and your children and the brethren in Eltham.
Affectionately yours in Christ,
James Taylor.