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We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;

when passing through the gates of pearly splendour,
victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
when passing through the gates of pearly splendour,
victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.

But my objective in going through the
background to the hymn is to focus on
the author, very few people would have
heard her name - I certainly had not! She
was a remarkable woman. I want to tell
you about her. Her name was:
Edith Gilling Cherry.

When she was only sixteen months old
she suffered from Polio and was crippled,
having to use crutches for the rest of her
life. But she was a sweet and lovely soul
who loved the Lord Jesus and tried to
serve Him by helping others. She also
had a wonderful gift of poetry and wrote a
number of beautiful hymns and poems, “We rest on Thee.” being
her most famous.

At the early age of 25 she suffered several strokes and heard the
voice of Jesus saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of Thy Lord.”

As we enter the New Year what better words could be upon our
lips than,

“We rest on Thee, our shield ad our defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe”.

Graham Neads

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