Pitying Love
“Like a- a father pltieth his children, so the Lord pileth them that fear him.” — Pa. ciii. 13.
“Abba, Father I” is a Gospel word. A father bending over the sick bed of his weak or dying child; a mother pressing, in tender solicitude, an infant sufferer to her bosom. These are the earthly pictures of God. Like hs a father pitiethr As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort youP’
When tempted in our season of overwhelming sorrow to say, ‘’ Never has there been so dark a cloud, never a heart so stript and desolate as mine,” let this thought hush every murmur, It is your Father’s good pleasure T The love and pity of the tenderest earthly parent is but a dim shadow compared to the pitying love of God. If your heavenly
Father’s smile has for the moment been exchanged for the chastening rod; be assured there is some deep necessity for the altered discipline. If there be unutterable yearnings in the soul of the earthly parent as the lancet is applied to the body of his child — infinitely more is it so with your covenant God as He subjects you to these deep woundings of heart! Finite wisdom has no place in His ordinations. An earthly father may err — is ever erring; but, ‘’^ as for Ood His way is perfectP This is the explanation of His every dealing — “Your heavenly Father hnoweth ye have need of all these things /”
Trust Him when you can not trace Hinf. Do not try to penetrate the cloud which He “brings over the earth,” and to look through it. Keep your eye steadily fixed on the Bow. The mystery is God’s, the promise is yours. Seek that the end of all His dispensations may be to make you more confiding. Without one misgiving commit your way to Him. He says regarding each child of His covenant family, what He said of Ephraim of old ‘’and never more so than in a season of suffering) “I do earnestly remember him stills Whilst now bending your head like a bulrush — jour heart breaking with sorrow — remember Hi? pitying eye is upon you. Be it yours, evein through blinding tears, to say, ‘■’’Even so, Fathee!”