MAY 1ST, 1941

MAY 1ST, 1941

^[p. 292] BELOVED BROTHER, — Many thanks for your letter, which I was most thankful to receive, and which I read to the dear brethren here last night. We are all most deeply and prayerfully sympathetic with our beloved brethren in — in the great testings which you are passing through. Our hearts bow in thankfulness for the grace that has been upon you, and for the mercy that has so largely preserved you from personal injury. We are within hearing of the gunfire and explosions so that our hearts are kept alert in their affections and prayers for you. It is a comfort to know that our God has foreseen all that is now happening, and we may be sure that, while it is a judicial dealing upon that part of the earth which is professedly Christian, it also has a direct bearing upon His elect remnant in all the countries affected. He knows how to make it all contributory to His work by reducing the influence of what really hinders that work. I trust we shall all be much less earth-dwellers than we have been, and that the things above may be much more of a reality to us. F.E.R. used to speak of retiring into the region of the Spirit. There is much attraction to draw us there, but how often we need the negative help of pressures outwardly to move us in that direction. Our hearts are, indeed, made familiar with woe in this unprecedented time, but you are proving in a wondrous way that it does not separate from the love of Christ. May you, and all of us, know that love more fully than ever amid the present tribulations!

We were grieved not to have more of you with us on Saturday, but you had a very special place in our thoughts and prayers. I think we were helped as to the character and progress of service in the assembly.

With much love in the Lord to your dear wife and yourself and, indeed, to all the dear brethren,

Yours very affectionately in Him,

May 1st, 1941.