At the annual 'Roll Call Meeting,' held in Wesley Hall, Aldershot, in January, 1900, we took as our 'Motto' for the next twelve months the words of Bishop Bickersteth's beautiful hymn--
'In Jesu's keeping we are safe, and they.'
All of us had friends in South Africa. Most of us had relatives there; and as we bowed in prayer together we thought of the famous prayer of long ago: 'The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another.'
All the way through we have realized that there was a God of love watching between us. All the way through we have been quite certain that 'in Jesu's keeping' they were safe.
Some of them we shall never see again on earth, but they are still 'in Jesu's keeping.' Some of them are still far away from us fighting for their country. But they, too, are 'in Jesu's keeping,' and for them we are not afraid. We said 'Good-bye' many months ago, but it meant 'God be with you,' and our farewell prayer has been answered. Here or there we expect to clasp hands with them again.
And the comfort that has been ours in Old England has been theirs in South Africa. They, too, have thought of loved ones far away. They, too, have realized--
'In Jesu's keeping we are safe, and they.'
'The Soldier's Psalm' has been read and rejoiced in all through South Africa.
'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.... He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.'
Chanted in many a service, repeated in the darkness on outpost duty, remembered even amid the fury of the battle, this Soldiers' Psalm has been to thousands a source of comfort and strength.
* * * * *
With its blessed words ringing in our ears we close this book. The war is not yet over. Disease has not yet claimed all its victims. The fateful bullet has not delivered its final message of death. But our loved ones are 'in Jesu's keeping,' and we are content to leave them there. With them and with us it may be 'Peace, perfect peace.'
