SOME of our readers may remember reading a tract under this title, which was printed in the Magazine some years ago. The late Miss Jessie Russell, Inverness, so well know to a number of our ministers and people, when on her death-bed expressed a wish that the tract should be sent to the Editor of the Magazine for publication in its pages. After her death the tract could not be found, as it had gone amissing, but it was ultimately found in a book and sent to the Editor for publication. The next part of the story is unfolded in a letter which we received the other month from a Dutch reader of the Magazine in the U.S.A.—
Dear Friend,—I am enclosing one dollar for another year’s subscription to the “Free Presbyterian Magazine.” I enjoy very much its pithy articles, and I have some hope that it has been a means of spiritual blessing for me, especially those articles of the “Teacher’s Daughter.” While reading and re-reading them I obtained such free and open access to the throne of grace and such courage, yes, I would almost say boldness, to cling and cleave unto Christ as I had never been able to do before; also have I experienced a peace of mind as never before. Since that time I have made public confession of faith in the Christian Reformed Church, and been admitted to the Lord’s Holy Supper, also there I might be cleaving to Christ during the last administration. How hard a lesson it is to learn, “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.” I have for almost 20 years been pleading God’s promises, often wrestling earnestly in prayer. But never in all those years (I am now 40 years) could I realise that God’s grace was so free and so great as I see it now. I wish to relate this to the honour of the triune God and to encourage you in your work. I also have been encouraged to keep on seeking and praying, though doubts will still arise at times whether it was true saving grace. But I sometimes think “if I perish it will be at his door facing him.”
Hoping that through God’s grace you may be enabled to bear much fruit. I remain, dear friend, sincerely yours—Wm. Van Drunen, jun.