I KNOW right well the deep abyss of gloom that, like an atmosphere, surrounds the human heart; and I know, too, how often even physical weakness lets one drop into it, and how hard it is to shake it off.
Our strength is gone and oft we “wist it not,” ―so that I always say to myself, “Take care! ward it off in the beginning.” If one gives way, one drops deeper and deeper into it; into the thing, of all others, most fallen, most afar from God—a dark, brooding human heart. The Lord is very pitiful to such an one, very tender and gracious, but if (as has been said) I have all the grace of Christ, I have no business to give way as if it were not “sufficient.”
What oppresses me to-day will be gone tomorrow, but a glimpse of Christ―the felt answer of His heart in the moment of oppression―will last until to-morrow, and the next day, and forever and forever.
Shame on the heart that can go down so low for the worry of the moment, and rise so little to the realities that are to last forever! G. V. W.
IF we can say, that “in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing,” we have thought quite long enough about ourselves.” J. N. D.