“AS thy days thy strength shall be,”
Hear the Father say to thee.
Days when clouds are hanging low:
And the sun is hid from view;
Days of body-racking pain;
Aching heart and weary brain;
Hear thy Father say to thee―
“As thy days thy strength shall be.”
“As thy days thy strength shall be,”
Hear the Father say to thee.
Days of famine, scanty store,
Hunger knocking at the door;
Days when death has come to bide,
When your dear one leaves your side;
Then thy Father speaks to thee―
“As thy days thy strength shall be.”
Jennie Gale Irwin.
“The Trial of Your Faith” (1 Peter 1:77That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: (1 Peter 1:7)). Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers as well as when all things are against her: tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a calm reigns on a sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its harbor; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with rains, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway toward her desired haven.
No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength had you not been supported amid the flood waters. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too. Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them; the full portion will be measured out to you in due season. But learn to trust, and you shall yet have more and more of the blessings of God, till your faith shall remove mountains and conquer impossibilities.
“Just to leave in His dear Hand
Little things,
All we cannot understand,
All that stings.
Just to let Him take the care,
Sorely pressing
Finding all we let Him bear
Changed to blessing.”
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:... Whom having not seen, ye love” (1 Peter 1:6-86Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:6‑8)).
“He always sends His staff with His rod.”
Tracks of God.
“Father,” asked Thomas, looking up from his studies, “how do you know there is a God?”
“Why, what makes you ask that question? Do you doubt the existence of God?”
“Well, I heard one of the students say you could not be sure there is a God. Is there any way really to know?”
“Well, my boy, do you remember the other day that you were laughing about Robinson Crusoe’s dismay at discovering that there were other persons on the island besides himself? How did he discover them? Did he see them? No; he discovered one track of a bare foot in the sand, and he knew that it could not be his own. He knew that only a human being could have made it, and he knew that whosoever had made it could not be far off, for the tide had not yet reached it. All those things he knew to be true, although he had not seen a human being within miles of the island. And the knowledge was all gained from a mark in the sand.
“If one print of a bare foot in the sand is absolute proof of the existence and presence of a human being, what are we to suppose when we see the prints of the Master’s shoe, as Bunyan calls it, covering the whole wide world? We see on mountain and valley the print of the fingers of God. We see a million flowers and plants and trees that only God could make grow. We see all the rivers and the springs of the world fed from the sky. We see a great universe, perfectly made and ordered from the tiniest speck to the greatest of all the worlds. What do all those things mean — those millions upon millions of footprints in the day of the world? They mean God living, present, ruling and loving! They mean God and nothing else.”
“Praying and reading every day
Will keep you in the narrow way;
Neglect of these will surely be
Sadness and sorrow of heart to thee.”
Dr. F. B. Meyer.