Jesus was betrayed by Judas. He had to die the cruel death on the cross. His death brought us everlasting life; yet Judas killed himself.
We have been betrayed by many of our burghers. We have lost our right for a time. Yet they who struggled to the end, and who resolved that right must go first without thinking of might, have kept their fortitude. However the end may have shaped itself, they are glad not to have been Judases.
There was now a great longing on the part of all those around to see the members of their families from whom they had been parted for so long.
I, too, rejoiced that I could go to Pretoria to see my children, whom I had not seen for so long a time. And I thought again of my beloved son, whom I had had to give up.
And yet I had not had to sacrifice so much; many a woman had given her husband and her children too.
We went on to Klerksdorp in my waggon. As we would have to drive for two days before getting there, and as Sunday came in between, on that day we made a halt. It was the last Sunday that I spent out on the veldt. I thought earnestly of all that had taken place. How many Sundays had I not spent in flying before the enemy?
Sunday evening we entered Klerksdorp; Monday morning I sent back the waggons which had housed me and my children for twenty months. I had grown so used to life in my waggon that I did not like to see it go away.
We went to Pretoria that evening, and I found my children in well-being. It was pleasant after such a long separation. I had been two days in Pretoria when a son was born to my daughter. Then I became a grandmother, for this was the first grand-child. He was christened Jacobus Herklaas De la Rey. I felt very grateful. In all the bitterness of those weary days I was able to say, “But He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job xxiii. 10); and also as in Job ii. 10 (the last part), “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
Now, dear brothers and sisters, since we are sure that God shall prove His Word, let us stand steadfast in our faith and wait for the salvation of the Lord. This is the time of trial; now will the Lord see if we are worthy that He should make His wonders manifest unto us before the eyes of the whole world.
“Though He tarry, He knows His hour,