Dear Tried Friend,
You are unknown to me, but the same blessed Master that cheered me in times of deep, deep trial will comfort you. Every hair of your head is numbered, and the common house sparrow reminds us daily of our Father's care, for the sight of it recalls those marvelous words that fell from the Master's lips: "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God. Ye are of more value than many sparrows." (Luke 12:6-7). In another Gospel we read that two sparrows were sold for one farthing, so that if five were sold for two farthings, it means that they were of such little value that one was thrown in to tempt the purchaser. Yet God, so great that nothing is too great for Him, and so great that nothing is too small, marks the falling sparrow. What comfort in this! Nay more, the whole truth of a Father's love and care could not come out till after the ascension of the Lord, and now we know that we are God's children. How, then, can there be the least question as to His love and power? " Behold, What Manner Of Love."
I know that bodily infirmity brings us very low sometimes—mental affliction or nervous troubles are very real, but the Lord knows all about it. I have known trouble to take such a hold upon me, that 1 have cried out like Peter, when he was sinking in the water: "Lord, save me." But once get into His presence, we find His high priestly hand stretched out to support us, where nature and common sense would say it were impossible.
Job with his little light, and at best but a servant of God, whilst you and I are His children, often puts me to shame. He said: "Though He Slay Me, Yet Will I Trust In Him." (Job 13:15). True, he did not know himself, for he boasted in the next breath of his own integrity; but at any rate he had a sublime confidence in God. He was tried as no one has ever been. At one stroke, reduced from being the richest sheik in the East, to poverty; at the same time not one child, but all his sons and daughters swept away; then his body afflicted, not with an ordinary visitation, but from sole to
crown with sore boils. Sitting in the dust with his three friends aggravating him, one is more and more astonished at his words. With our God-given knowledge of a Father's heart, and in the light of the cross, can we repine? Surely not. Then let us praise Him, though it be with trembling voice.
Yours affectionately in the Lord,
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