THE FAMILY ALTAR 

April 12.

"For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand

at the latter day upon the earth." Job 19:25.

    Sitting on his ash heap, one sore boil from the top of his

head to the sole of his foot, shunned by his neighbors, forsaken

by the wife of his bosom, falsely accused of being a secret slave

of sin by his dearest friends, seeing nothing but heart-breaking

misery around him and the gloomy grave before him, — what a

pitiful sight suffering Job presents! He is, in fact, nothing but

a living corpse. 

    Where did mortal man ever suffer more than he did in body, soul, or mind? Yet out of the appalling night of his woe and misery he sends forth this divine utterance of his faith in his living Redeemer; and millions upon millions of later sufferers have been comforted and cheered through it.

    What gives Job such sublime faith ? Nothing else than the Word, the promise of His God telling him of the Seed of the Woman that should

bruise the Serpent's head. To this he clings with unfaltering faith,

and through it soars triumphantly as on wings of an eagle over

all his afflictions. 

    Oh, that we and all Christian sufferers might attain to such triumphant faith! That we might know with such divine assurance as Job did that the living God Himself has become our Redeemer from death and the grave! 

    But it does not suffice for us merely to think it true, to have learned it in school, to speak and read about it, but we must know it in God-given heart-faith if it is to save us. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9.)

    How can we attain to such saving faith in Christ's resurrection?

Alone by the faith-working power of God's Word, as Paul declares

in the preceding verse: "The Word is nigh thee, even in thy

mouth and in thy heart, that is, the Word of faith which we

preach." Then let us make it our dearest employ to read and

study what God's Word tells us of the resurrection of our Lord

and of our own, and His Holy Spirit will quicken, seal, and

confirm it in us and make it an overflowing fountain of trust,

and joy, and happiness.

I know that my Redeemer lives! 

What comfort this sweet sentence gives,

He lives, He lives, who once was dead, 

He lives, my ever-living Head.

He lives triumphant from the grave.

 He lives eternally to save;

He lives all-glorious in the sky,

 He lives exalted there on high.