YES, I DO, AND HE IS MINE
"GOD loved the world of sinners lost
And ruined by the fall;
Salvation full at highest cost,
He offers free to all."
"O 'Twas love, 'twas wonderous love,
The love of God to me;
It brought my Saviour from above
To die on Calvary."
There was something touching in the way in which David Grisswood sang those inspiring lines. It was evident that he was trying to enter into the spirit of them and to appropriate to himself the truth they presented so clearly. "Even now by faith I call Him mine."
The last words brought a change. It burst from David's lips with a crescendo force that was fairly startling, and leaping to his feet, he cried-"Yes, I DO; AND HE IS MINE."
In that moment David Grisswood understood the secret, laid hold upon the saving truth of the gospel, kew himself to be a sinner saved by grace, and became the happy possessor of gladness of content never dreamed by the miller of the Dee!
"O Millie, Millie, dear wife I claim Him mine, and He claims me, I see it. Why there is nothing to do but to take Him at His word. Try it, Millie, and claim Him yours."
"O, 'twas love, 'twas wonderous love,
The love of God to me;
It brought my Saviour from above
To die on Calvary."
And again David went away into a solo of his own, while his hands were lifted and his eyes streamed with happy tears.
Millie, poor woman, did not feel like going away. She would much rather put in her cliam, and felt half inclined to make David sing it over again, in the hope that a similar charm might fall upon her melted soul.
"Millie," said David taking her by the hand and pointing to the chorus, "Don't you see? It says 'The love of God to me!' That means you, you know yourself. Don't you think it's true?"
"Yess, David," she said tearfully: "I claim Him mine. O, my husband!" she continued, smiling and weeping all in one: and in that supreme moment David Grisswood knew they were partners of like precious faith. They knelt down together side by side, and in simple words, broken by sobs of tender feeling, the miller gave thanks unto God for His unspeakable gift.
From that day forward a marvellous change came over the little household at Burnham Mill. The whole moral atmosphere was changed. The miller was as musical as ever, nay more so; but the inspiration was new, and the songs were new and of a higher order.
Dear reader, as you pause the above lines selected from the musical miller, you are tracing the experience in measure of all who are born from above "born again." Let the language be that of culture and education or of the less favored. The heart experience remains the same. There is that supreme moment in the life story of those who are saved. That experience of passing from darkness into light felt and known. Let me appeal to you. Can you sing or say like the "miller of the Dee." -
E'en now by faith I claim Him mine,
The risen son of God;
Redemption by His death I find,
And cleansing through the blood.
If not why not be saved, even now. The work that saves is done.
"For Christ......once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God."
"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" 1 Peter 2: 24
Such was the sacrifice He made,
The law could ask no more;
For not a mite was left unpaid,
When He my judgement bore.
Believe it O sinner, Believe it, for "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," 2 Timothy 2: 11. "and now being justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5: 1
"Be it known unto you......that through this man (Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by Him all that believe are justified from all things which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Acts 13: 38
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