GOD’S MESSAGE AND HIS MESSENGER

My dear brother,

         I have no doubt that it is just in so far as one lives in the good of the glad tidings of the grace of God, that one thinks of others, and that one is in any feeble way the able communicator of the blessed message of God to others.

         When I was a child, I used to be sent sometimes on messages.  My mother had a peculiar habit of saying to me at the last moment, and after giving me all her instructions, ‘Now, Harry, who are you going to and what are you going to say?’  It was my defect as to the last part of the question that she often had to correct in me; I was generally least prepared to answer this part to her satisfaction.  It often comes to me that if brethren who desire to evangelise would go through beforehand with God what I had to go through as my mother’s messenger, they would have people to go to and something to say, and they would leave off and go home, as I used to, when they had said it.  We should then have less wearisome discourses, which, alas, sometimes fail to present good news at all (I am not speaking of yours, as you know). Then my mother would finish up by saying to me, “and mind you tell them who sent you!’  What do you think of these three points in my mother’s training for an evangelist?  1.  ‘To whom are you going?’  2.  ‘What are you going to say?’  3.  ‘mind you tell them who sent you’. 

         I must thank you for your letter, and especially for your prayers for me, as you say I have no doubt that we all feel (and it ought to exercise us) how feebly we preach the gospel.  But it is quite another thing to conclude as you suggest, that you had better not take it again!  I think you must know (while feeling fully your own weakness) whose voice that is: John 8: 44, gives the clue.  I send this by post.  The time is short, and I do not know when I may see you. 

Love to all yours

Your affectionate brother,

HENRY C ANSTEY

From Words of Grace and Encouragement, vol 2 1902