Was I right?

by Mrs. O. F. Walton

Only one of the beings which inhabited this tiny world; one of the smallest and least wise of all in God's universe! Who was I, that I should say to God, "Why doest Thou this?" Who was I, that I should presume to sit in judgment on anything in God's revelation?

"His wisdom is unsearchable, His ways past finding out," was the language of my heart. I am but a little child,—how can I understand God's plans? I know so little, I understand so little, I see such a little way, either before me or behind me. How can I, then, expect to understand that which is understood fully only by God Himself?

A feeling of my utter nothingness and insignificance in God's sight came over me so powerfully that I was almost crushed by it. Who was I—what was I, that I should dare to doubt what God had in wonderful condescension revealed to me, because of the vast amount of knowledge which was too wonderful for me; so high that I could not attain unto it?

"O Lord," I said, as I looked up into the sky, "I will be content to be a little child, receiving Thy Word with childlike faith, and what my mind is too weak and small to understand fully, I will yet believe, because Thou hast told me, and because Thy Word must be true."

And even as I said the words, this verse came into my mind:

"Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

Then the day was coming when, in another world, my mind would be strengthened to understand these difficult matters which were now perplexing me—these things which I only knew in part, and which, for this very reason, just because I only knew a part of them, seemed to me so perplexing and mysterious.

And then there was another thought which comforted me perhaps more than anything else, and it was this: I had proved the Bible to be true myself. I knew it was the Word of the God of truth by my own experience. I had prayed, and had received many an answer to my prayers. I had pleaded the promises, and had found them more than fulfilled to me in every hour of need. I had fallen back upon the grand old truths of the Bible in many a time of trouble, and had never found them fail me.

A hundred books, written by the cleverest men on earth, could not convince me that the Bible was a mere human production; for I had found in it what I had found in no other book—peace for a troubled conscience, comfort in sorrow, victory over sin.

I lay down to sleep that night reassured and comforted, and with my doubts entirely removed, and I do not remember that they ever returned to me.