“IF GOD BE FOR US … ”

The following letter, addressed to the late Mr. Paul Cooper, was the last received from an aged brother, now with the Lord, who lived in isolation in eastern Russia.

(Translated from the Russian)

27th June 1968

Beloved Brother in the Lord,

Many years have run their course in this life since the day that we were drawn together to the feet of Jesus and built one another up spiritually in the house of God. But it was the Lord’s will to separate us and to set us in different places in distant lands, to be a testimony to Jesus Christ to the end of our days, till the Lord comes.

Many of our fellow pilgrims of my generation are already at home, seeing the beloved, glorified Jesus at the right hand of God the Father, but I still stand as a tree in the wilderness, surrounded by storm and hail with thunder, but rooted in faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, who has marked me out for God, and has prepared me a place in the Father’s house, as He says in John 12: 26, “Where I am, there also shall be my servant”.

Beloved brother, many things have changed in the course of time, but who shall separate us from the love of God—“tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”, Romans 8: 35–39. “If God be for us, who against us?”, “But in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20.

As to what pertains to my daily life I sum it up in the words of Isaiah 40: 29–31, “He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and shall tire, and the young men shall stumble and fall; but they that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength—they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not tire; they shall walk, and not faint”.

With warm love to you and all the saints,

Your affectionate brother,

G. F—

Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 4QY, England Printed by High Speed Printing Limited, 43 Conduit Street, London, W1S 2YJ