December 1

“Thou hast made summer and winter.” — Psalm lxxiv. 17.

MY soul, begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind the*, that He keeps His covenant with day and night, and tend to assure thee that He will also keep that glorious covenant which He has made with thee in the person of Jesus Christ. He who is true to His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved

Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now, it will be very painful to thee: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation; He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy; He casteth forth His ice like morsels, freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all; He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord’s sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clod.”, and sweeten the soil. 0 that such good results would alrays follow our winters of affliction! — How we prize the fire jrst now! How pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and go forth to labors which befit the season; for it were ill to bo as the sluggard, who will not plough, by reason of the cold, for he shall beg in summer, and have niiMng.