Morning, May 22
Go To Evening Reading
“He led them forth by the right way.”
Psalm 107:7
Changeful experience often leads the anxious believer to inquire “Why is it thus with me?” I looked for light, but lo, darkness came; for peace, but behold,
trouble. I said in my heart, my mountain standeth firm; I shall never
be moved. Lord, thou dost hide thy face, and I am troubled. It was
but yesterday that I could read my title clear; today my evidences
are bedimmed, and my hopes are clouded. Yesterday, I could climb to
Pisgah’s top, and view the landscape o'er, and rejoice with confidence in
my future inheritance; today, my spirit has no hopes, but many fears;
no joys, but much distress. Is this part of God’s plan with me? Can this be the way in which God would bring me to
heaven? Yes, it is even so. The eclipse of your faith, the darkness
of your mind, the fainting of your hope, all these things are but
parts of God’s method of making you ripe for the great inheritance upon which you
shall soon enter. These trials are for the testing and strengthening
of your faith—they are waves that wash you further upon the rock—they are winds which waft your ship the more swiftly towards the desired
haven. According to David’s words, so it might be said of you, “So he bringeth them to their desired haven.” By honour and dishonour, by evil report and by good report, by plenty
and by poverty, by joy and by distress, by persecution and by peace,
by all these things is the life of your souls maintained, and by each
of these are you helped on your way. Oh, think not, believer, that
your sorrows are out of God’s plan; they are necessary parts of it. “We must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom.” Learn, then, even to “count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.”
“O let my trembling soul be still,
And wait thy wise, thy holy will!
I cannot, Lord, thy purpose see,
Yet all is well since ruled by thee.”