The path of providence is often paved with
difficulties, and beset with perplexities with
which we can ill cope.
Our way to heaven is through an intricate
wilderness and across a circuitous desert.
To many even of the Lord’s people, this is
literally the case. Visit their abodes, and
ponder the struggle passing within! …
And yet not entirely unrelieved is this dark picture.
Christ dwells in that obscure abode!
God’s eye is watching over it!
There is…
gnawing poverty, and yet boundless wealth;
deep need, and yet a rich supply;
acute suffering, and yet exquisite pleasure;
keen sorrow, and yet unspeakable joy.
And why these paradoxes? How are we
to understand these strange contradictions?
The apostle gives us a clue in a page of his own history.
“As unknown, and yet well known;
dying, and, behold, we live;
as chastened, and not killed;
and sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich;
but having nothing, yet possessing all things.”
This unravels the mystery! Can we doubt His perfect power?
The possession of Christ explains it! He who
has Christ in him, and Christ with him, and the
hope of being forever with Christ in glory, is not
a poor, nor a sorrowful, nor a suffering, nor a
lone man. He can say, “I am not alone, for my
Father is with me. I am not poor, for all things
are mine. My body is diseased, but my soul is
in health. I have all and abound.”
Can we for a moment doubt His perfect power
to undertake all the cares,
and cope with all the difficulties;
to solve all the doubts, and
disentangle all the perplexities brought to
Him by His saints in all places and at all times?
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