gloom. The storm is for an hour, the calm that follows is eternal.
5. What consolation in sorrow! Our times are in hands divinely wise and powerful. All must work for good. There can be no real evil.
6. What hope for the future! We know that there is light beyond this gloom. The storm is for an hour, the calm that follows is eternal.
The True Burden-bearer
"Cast thy burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain thee."—PS. 55:22.
WE do not need to bear our own burdens any more than we need to bear our own sins. God has provided for the bearing of both. He takes them upon Himself. The work of burden-bearing is as completely His as is the work of sin-bearing. His love has removed all necessity for our attempting to bear either the one or the other.
Even if we could, then, why should we bear them? It is not wise; nay, it is foolish beyond measure; and it is as useless as it is foolish.
But more than this, it is sinful. To try to be our own sin-bearers is to make void the work of Christ as such; so to try to be our own burdenbearers is to make void His work as such. We see the sin of trying to bear our own guilt, let us learn to see as clearly the sin of seeking to bear our own burdens. Let us understand the sin of not casting our burden on the Lord.
What is there about these burdens that we should be so unwilling to part with them? Or what is there about God that should make us unwilling to cast them on Him? His love, and power, and faithfulness, all invite us to do this. Not to do it is to suspect and distrust Him. He delights to bear the whole undivided weight; shall
we not, then, give up every burden to Him who wants us to be "without carefulness" because He careth for us! What sweet and holy lightness of spirit would then be ours! The burden is not lessened in itself, but it is borne by the Mighty God!
Still Trust
"Trust in Him at all times."—PS. 62:8.
ONE of God's heaviest complaints against us is, that we will not trust Him. There is nothing that He desires so much as this; there is nothing that honours Him so much as this; there is nothing that would bring so many blessings to ourselves; yet we do not trust Him. We speak of Him, but we do not trust Him. We pray to Him, but we do not trust Him.
Have we any good reason for this distrust? Is God's character such as to repel our trust? Has He shewn us so much ill-will that we dare not trust Him? Surely there are no reasons in Him for distrust! His whole character and actings towards us are such as to draw out our most hearty trust. His love, His grace, His long-suffering,—all these revealed and pledged to us in the gift of His beloved Son,—shew us what a God we have to do with, and how entirely worthy of our trust He is.
Nor can anything in us, however evil, be a reason for not trusting Him. Our sins may be many, our hearts may be hard, our wills may be crooked, our ways very rebellious; but all these together are no reason for distrusting God. To distrust Him because of these, would be adding sin to sin. He is "rich in mercy;" He is the "God of all grace;" let us "trust in Him at all times." Simple trust in Him as the
God of all grace would do for us what nothing else could do. We shall be no losers by our confidence.
Fulness for the Empty
"He satisfieth the longing soul."—PS. 107:9.
IT is our poverty that fits us for the riches of God. This is our only qualification. It is with the poor that God deals. It is the empty that He fills.
We are very unwilling to be thought wholly poor or wholly empty. And this is the real hindrance to our being blessed! Were we always willing to be treated as such, we should soon find what blessing would pour in. Then the great barrier would be taken away.
When a soul comes to know that it is really poor and empty, then it stretches out its hands to Him who alone can satisfy. It is in this attitude that God meets us. "He satisfieth the longing soul." Shall we not come before Him thus? He wants no merit, no claim on our part. All He desires is that we should be willing to be receivers. He asks no more. He loves to bless. "He gives to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." Let us go to Him. He sends none empty away.
Each longing cry that goes up in His ears meets with a ready response. He is not slow to give. His love is not as our love; His thoughts are not as our thoughts; His ways are not as our ways. He gave His Son, and what will He not give? He has sent His Spirit, and what will not that Spirit bring to us? He has made known to us His "gospel,"—His "good news;" and how much does that imply? How can we be poor, with such riches as His at our side?
Look to Him who made thee
"Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments."—PS. 119:73
IT was in the same way that Peter wrote, ages after—"Commit the keeping of your souls to Him, as unto a faithful Creator." Both the Old and New Testament saints are looking at God, as the God that made them; not merely the God who clothes the lilies and feeds the ravens, but the God who made themselves. On this they build their trust. He made them, and He has not unmade them. Surely they may trust Him. They seem to say to God, "Thou hast made us: surely Thou wilt teach us; surely Thou wilt preserve and comfort us. The God who created us will not forsake the work of His own hands. He who gave us breath, will He not much more give us His Holy Spirit? He who cares for these vile bodies, will He not much more care for these souls?"
This is a peace-giving truth. It is a strong and blessed argument against all unbelief. We cannot deny that He made us; surely we cannot doubt that He will care for us, and keep us, and bless us. It is like Paul's argument in Romans 8:32, "He that spared not his own Son, will he not with him freely give us all things?" He who I upholds us in being and keeps us out of hell, what will He not do for us?— what will He not give us? Would He give us our daily life, with all its common mercies, if He were only seeking to destroy us?
Water for the Thirsty
"I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground."—ISA. 44:3.
MOST tender are the compassions of our God. Most affectionate is the interest which He takes in our welfare. His thoughts towards us are thoughts of peace. He does not weary in well-doing towards us, in spite of all our ill-doing towards Him.
He would fain see us happy, and He gives us His promise that He will make us so. He does so in a way that shews us that nothing shall be able to hinder our being happy, if we will but allow Him to make us so. "Let Me make you happy; let Me fill you with My joy." Thus He speaks to us.
He knows what a thirsty land we dwell in, a desert where there are no springs of water and no shady palm-trees. He sees how certain we are to be thirsty in such a world, and He provides for it. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty;" nay, I will pour "floods upon the dry ground." These souls of ours are like the earth we dwell in—"dry ground." But here is the promise of the welcome shower. It comes from God himself. It is from His free love that the refreshing rain descends; nay, it is that free love that is itself the reviving rain. Let us but lay our parched and weary souls under it, that we may be made fresh and glad. These "showers," these "floods" from heaven can refresh the most withered and drooping.
Strength for the Helpless
"In the Lord have I righteousness and strength."—ISA. 45:24.
THESE are the two things we most needed—righteousness for our unrighteousness, and strength for our helplessness. "I am unrighteous," is our feeling every moment. To meet this, a divine righteousness is at hand. "I am without strength," is our feeling also. But it was because we were without strength that Christ died for us. And, besides, there is strength provided, divine strength; strength as free and perfect, and near as is the righteousness. This strength completely meets our complaint of inability. The truth is that we are far more helpless than we think ourselves. Yet that matters not. It is to them that have "no might" that He "increaseth strength." We ought, then, no more to be cast down by a sense of inability than by a sense of unworthiness. God has provided against both. There is enough of strength at our disposal not only to make our inability no real hindrance, but to make it the very thing which gives us hope, inasmuch as it draws out the strength which is in the Lord for us. It gives Him an opportunity for magnifying His strength in our weakness. Most gladly, then, let us "glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us." (2 Cor. 12:9.) It is thus that "out of weakness we are made strong."
A Present Righteousness
"I bring near My righteousness."—ISA. 46:13.
GOD is here speaking to those who are "far from righteousness;" and He proposes to remedy their evil, and to remove this distance, by bringing His righteousness near to them. They will not come near to His righteousness. They keep aloof from it. In great love, therefore, He resolves to bring it nigh them.
And He has brought it near! It is as near as it is possible for any thing to be to us,—as near as the words themselves which tell us of it. What can be nearer to us than words which not only float round us, but which, entering by the ear, go through our whole man? So near is this righteousness, as the apostle shews us, in the tenth of the Romans. We do not need to go up to heaven for it, nor to go down into the earth for it. We do not need to go one step nor to move one inch in order to reach it. It is so near as to be within the reach of every sinner to whom the good news are preached. We know that it is free; that it is precious; that it is sufficient; that it is suitable; but we also know that it is NEAR. Were it far off it would not do for us. But it is so near that we have nothing to do in order to get it, but merely to consent to let God put it upon us! This is faith. Oh, let us not thrust away the Hand that would clothe us with raiment so needful and so divine!
God's Cure for Darkness
"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."—ISA. 50:10
OUR way is often dark in this dark world. Evil and sorrow surround us like so many thick clouds that shut out the light. What, then, shall we do, when we are thus on the point of losing our way? Take hold of God's hand, as the little child does of its father's in the dark night, and keep close to His side.
This is God's cure for darkness—simple confidence in Himself. The want of this confidence puts us all wrong. The possession of it keeps