Evening, July 21
Go To Morning Reading
“Why go I mourning?”
Psalm 42:9
Canst thou answer this, believer? Canst thou find any reason why thou
art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations?
Who told thee that the night would never end in day? Who told thee
that the sea of circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing
left but long leagues of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told thee
that the winter of thy discontent would proceed from frost to frost,
from snow, and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest
of despair? Knowest thou not that day follows night, that flood comes
after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Hope thou then!
Hope thou ever! For God fails thee not. Dost thou not know that thy
God loves thee in the midst of all this? Mountains, when in darkness
hidden, are as real as in day, and God’s love is as true to thee now as it was in thy brightest moments.
No father chastens always: thy Lord hates the rod as much as thou
dost; he only cares to use it for that reason which should make thee
willing to receive it, namely, that it works thy lasting good. Thou
shalt yet climb Jacob’s ladder with the angels, and behold him who sits at the top of it—thy covenant God. Thou shalt yet, amidst the splendours of eternity,
forget the trials of time, or only remember them to bless the God
who led thee through them, and wrought thy lasting good by them. Come,
sing in the midst of tribulation. Rejoice even while passing through
the furnace. Make the wilderness to blossom like the rose! Cause the
desert to ring with thine exulting joys, for these light afflictions
will soon be over, and then “forever with the Lord,” thy bliss shall never wane.
“Faint not nor fear, his arms are near,
He changeth not, and thou art dear;
Only believe and thou shalt see,
That Christ is all in all to thee.”