Call Back

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The Call Back series.   

If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back—
’Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots were torn;
That when the heavens thundered and the earthquake shook the hill,
He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.

O friend, call back and tell me, for I cannot see your face;
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;
But there are mists between us, and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky— 
If you have gone a little way ahead, O friend, call back—
’Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.
—Lettie B. Cowman.


Reading of saints who had to face uncertainty, trials and fears is so helpful in our present situation.  Today there are many conspiracy theories and end of time prophecies.  They have always arisen in times of trouble because our norms are are being eroded.  Keep yourself looking to Jesus and not distracted by other voices.  And most of all never lose your heart of compassion.  Yes, the suffering in Ukraine is real.  May we not turn a blind eye.  We are commanded to "Love one another," and also to, "be addicted to hospitality."  Never let the enemy steal your warmth of compassion for the suffering of others!  We can love righteousness and hate evil, we can praise and weep.  We need to do both!  Faith just as much as life, is practical and real so read about others who went through times like these and came out victorious.

Eva Von Winkler—Sister Eva

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Eva Von Winkler, often known as “Sister Eva,” or “Mother Eva,” is among the women included in the They Knew Their God Series. In Volume One, Edwin and Lillian Harvey tell how this remarkable woman, brought up in an ancestral castle in South Eastern Germany, eventually established a sisterhood in Friedenshort. Here, Sister Eva and her fellow sisters, ministered to anyone in need—the elderly no longer cared for by their own family, children without a home, and the sick in need of loving attention.

In the ” The Call Back Series” written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, there is a chapter in Loneliness, the first volume of the series, entitled “Eva Von Winkler Calls Back.” When nervous exhaustion overtook Sister Eva in the midst of her work, she was set aside for seven long years. This “detour” she later remarked, “was necessary to prepare me for His service.” She had realized that she was “sinking into the rut of duties in a so-called Christian work, and missing the highest.” (Illness, p. 26.)
“Side-tracked, my Lord, amid some pain and loss,
Unfit to strive amid the lab’ring throng,
Weakened and spent—yet whatso’er the cross,
Resting in Thee, Who art forever strong.”
—Fred Brooks. (ibid)

You may read more about this remarkable woman in They Knew Their God Volume One and Illness. Both these books are published by Harvey Christian Publishers and are available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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They Knew Their God—Frances Ridley Havergal

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Frances Ridley Havergal
Most of us are acquainted with Frances Ridley Havergal, poet and hymn-writer. The words “Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord to Thee” are from one of her most well known hymns. Edwin and Lillian Harvey have quoted her in several of their compilations and they have written about her in Volume Two of the They Knew Their God Series.

She is also included in the first volume of The Call Back Series, Illness. Frances knew well what it was to suffer pain and she “calls back” to us to remind us that pain often brings us nearer our Lord if we use it rightly. The following poem sums it up for us:

“I take this pain, Lord Jesus
From Thine own hand,
The strength to bear it bravely
Thou wilt command.
I am too weak for effort
So let me rest,
In hush of sweet submission,
On Thine own breast.

“I take this pain, Lord Jesus,
As proof indeed
That Thou art watching closely
My truest need:
That Thou, my Good Physician,
Art watching still;
That all Thine own good pleasure
Thou wilt fulfill.

“‘Tis Thy dear hand, O Savior
That presseth sore,
The hand that bears the nail-prints
Forevermore.
And now beneath its shadow,
Hidden by Thee,
The pressure only tells me
Thou lovest me.”
—Frances Ridley Havergal.
Written in severe pain, Sunday afternoon, October 8th, 1876, at the Pension Wengen, The Alps, Switzerland.

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