I perceive that your heavenly Father has
again put you into the furnace...
And I trust that He
will divinely impress upon your heart, that there is a Needs Be For It
And that the outcome of your present trial shall
surely end in good to your soul.
His Word tells us that Trials are Absolutely Necessary, and why they
are so-as He would not afflict those whom He loves, But For Their Real Profit.
So He chooses those afflictions for us, and appoints
them for us at such seasons, and attended with such
circumstances-as He sees will be (all things considered) Most For Our Spiritual Advantage.
The afflictions and trials of His people
are always sent, either to Cure or to Prevent something still
worse.
Satan is compared to a fowler, and we sometimes are as
little upon our guard as a thoughtless bird-the danger is close to
us, but we are not aware of it.
But, as a sudden noise affrights the
bird, and makes it take wing and escape the snare-so the Lord often
disappoints the devices of the enemy, by sending a seasonable trial
to His dear children, which arouses them, and makes them flee to Him
for safety.
I have often thought that if David had fallen and broke his leg
when he was going up to the housetop-he would have missed the
sight of Bathsheba, and that long train of evils which made him cry
out of broken bones in a still more painful sense.
Just so, we do not know how things might have been with us-if such or
such a painful dispensation had not happened.
A course of continual
prosperity might have lulled us to sleep.
We must admit this,
when we find ourselves still apt to be drowsy-even though the Lord
is pleased to put thorns into our pillow.
Notwithstanding the feeling proofs we have of the vanity of the
present state, our spirits are still too apt to cleave to the dust.
What then might have been the case-had our path been always
smooth?
He is a good master to serve-I have found Him to be so for thirty
years.
Cheer up, the Lord does all things well!
Do not be
afraid of storms-for you have an infallible Pilot who will
guide you with His eye, uphold you with His arm, and is every minute
bringing you nearer to the harbor of eternal rest and peace!
We have just began harvest in these parts.
The grain has passed
through a variety of weather. Frosts and winds, rains and heat, each
of which, singly, would have destroyed it--have each in their places
(through the blessing of the Lord's overruling providence) concurred
to bring it to its present maturity.
The farmers here, as well as
elsewhere, have had different fears and complaints at different
times; they have thought sometimes the weather too cold or too hot,
too wet or too dry, by turns.
But their fears were groundless and
vain-the crop is ripe, the stalks are loaded, and bend under the
weight of the grain.
Is not this an emblem of the spiritual life?
What changes of weather
have we passed through, since the seeds of grace were first
sown in our hearts!
How often have we been ready to murmur at the
appointments of the Heavenly Gardener!
How hardly could we be
persuaded that the afflictions, temptations, and trials which we
have been exercised with-have, in their places, been no less
subservient to our growth, than the more pleasing sunshine we have
been sometimes favored with?
Yet, I trust, we are still growing and getting forward.
Neither
frost or floods have been able to destroy us; and Oh, (may
our hearts rejoice at the thought!) the harvest is
approaching!
When He sees that we are fully ripe-when all that He has
designed to do for us, in us, and by us, is completed-then He will
separate us from these clods of earth, and remove us into His
dwelling place, where we shall be done with fears and trials forever!
We shall not then live this poor dying life-neither shall we have
to complain of an evil heart of unbelief.
We shall not complain of a cold and careless heart-because we
shall be at the fountain-head of all our best wishes and desires!
We shall
be enjoying, through eternal ages, that ineffable bliss which is
prepared for all who love God, and who have been called by divine
grace, out of the service of sin, Satan, and the world-to love and
serve Him who is the Rock of eternal ages.
Yes, we
shall, with unspeakable delight-see Jesus as He is, and be
completely like Him!
Let us, then, not be weary in well doing; for,
in due season, we shall reap, if we fail not.
~John Newton~
Jesus is the Living Water and Bread of Life which sustains our hungry souls
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