FFF 7:3 (Mar 1961)
Editorial: The Cover
The cover of this volume pictured a closed door and a vine holding it shut.
It was not always like that. For years it had remained open, bidding the visitor welcome. Often had the Master entered through that door and into the garden.
Then one day it was found shut. At the first gentle knock, it swung open and again the Master entered. Morning and evening, often through the day, the door was opened to admit the knocker.
As the time passed, the opening of the door became less and less. Now look at it. The storms of years have etched their story upon it. The winds and rains have driven into the hinges and the lock. The brier and the rust are a mute testimony of sloth and carelessness.
Can this be a picture of your devotional life, or mine? In the days of the first love, communion with the Master was a moment-by-moment experience. Then as the cares of this life sent out their thorny tendrils and the storms swept across the soul, little by little the door began to close. Now it is shut, overgrown and disused. Dear reader, are you out of touch with the Master? Is he denied entrance into the garden of your soul?
Still standing outside, knocking, waiting, He longs to come in and enjoy His pleasant fruit … “But oh the weeds …” you say … “What a mess things are in now, I could never let Him in just now … I must get things cleaned up first…”
No, that’s not His way. Listen to all that He asks. Between the patient knocking we hear Him say, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and Open the Door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me.” All He asks is for the door to be opened. He’ll do the weeding. He is the Master gardener. Forget the failure of the past, and now, right now, before you read another page, decisively throw open the long shut door. With contrite spirit bid Him enter and His unbreakable word is “… I will come in…