Letters and Memories.
In all the events of life pray, pray take what God does not send as not good for us, and trust Him to send us what is good. Remember all these things are right, and
come with a reason, and a purpose, and a meaning; and he who grumbles at them believeth not (for the time being at least) in the Living God.
Ah! do not fancy that I am not often perplexed—“Cast down, yet not in despair.” No; Christ reigns, as Luther used to say—and therefore I will not fear, “though the mountains be removed (and I with them) and cast into the midst of the sea.”
Letters and Memories.
All these anxieties will be good for you. They all go to the making of a man—calling out that God-dependence in him which is the only true self-dependence, the only true strength. Well said old Hezekiah, “Lord, by all these things men live (by trouble, sorrow, sickness),
and in these things is the life of the spirit.”
MS. Letters.
Our Lord said, “Take no thought for the morrow; the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matt. vi. 34. And do we not find that our Lord’s words are true? Who are the people who get through most work in their lives, with the least wear and tear? Are they the anxious people? Those who imagine to themselves possible misfortunes, and ask continually, What if this happened, or if that? How should I be able to get through such and such a trouble? Far, far from it. Let us not waste the strength which God has given us for to-day in vain fears or vain dreams about to-morrow. To-day is quite
full enough of anxiety and care. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof, and sufficient for the day is the good thereof. To-day, and to-morrow too, may end very differently from what we hope. Yes. But they may end very differently from what we fear. Look not too far ahead, lest you see what is coming before you are ready for the sight. If we foresaw the troubles that are coming, perhaps it would break our hearts; and if we foresaw the happiness which is coming, perhaps it would turn our heads. Let us not meddle with the future but refrain our souls and keep them low, like little children, content with the day’s food, and the day’s schooling, and the day’s play-hours, sure that the Divine Master knows all that is right, and how to train us, and whither to lead us, though we