Take care that thou puttest all thy dear ones into God’s hand . Thou
hast put thine own soul there, put their souls and bodies likewise into
His custody. Thou canst trust Him for temporals for thyself, trust thy
jewels with Him. Feel that they are not thine own, but that they are
God’s loans to thee–loans which may be recalled at any moment–precious
denizens of heaven, not entailed upon thee, but of which thou art only a
tenant at will. Your possessions are never so safe as when you are
willing to resign them, and you are never so rich as when you put all
you have into the hand of the Lord. You shall find it greatly mitigate
the sorrow of bereavements, if before bereavement you shall have learned
to surrender every day all the things which are dearest to you, into the
keeping of your gracious God.
“ Consider Him. ”
O believer, who art weary and disheartened because of the roughness of
the way, look at the Master’s footsteps, and see how He suffered. You
are tried and troubled, and you ask for consolation. What better can be
afforded you than what is presented to you in the fact that Jesus Christ
is one with you in your nature–that He has suffered all that you are
now suffering–that your pathway has been aforetime trodden by His
sacred foot–that the cup of which you drink is a cup which He has
drained to the very bottom–that the river through which you pass is one
through which He swam, and every wave and billow which rolls over your
head did in old time roll over Him. Come! are you ashamed and unwilling
to suffer what your Master suffered? Shall the disciple be above his
Master, and the servant above his Lord? Shall he die upon a cross, and
will not you bear the cross? Must He be crowned with thorns, and shall
you be crowned with laurel? Is He to be pierced in hands and feet, and
are His followers to feel no pain? O, cast away the fond delusion. Look
to Him who “endured the cross, despising the shame,” and be ready to
endure and to suffer even as He did. You have His example to guide you,
and His sympathy to cheer you.