On Thy Wisdom
“His understanding is infinite.” — Ps. cxlvii. 5.
How baffling often are God’s dispensations! The more we attempt to fathom their mystery, the more are we driven to rest in the best earthly solution — “Thy judgments are a great deep!”
But where sense says, “All these things are against me,” faith has a different verdict — “All things are working together for my good.” This is the province of faith, confidingly to lean on the arm of God, and to say, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways.” We speak of God “foreseeing!” There is no such thing. The past, present, and fature are with Hipa all alike. He sees the end from the beginning. We can discern but a short way, and that short way through a false and distorted medium. In a piece of earthly mechanism, we seldom can discover beauty in the incompleted structure. The mightiest works of science, while in progress, are often a chaos of confusion: it is only when finished we can admire the relation and adjustment of every part to the whole. So with the mechanism of God’s moral administration. At present, how much mystery! But, when in the light of eternity we come to contemplate the completion of the mighty plan, how shall we be brought to own and exclaim,” The works of the Lord are
right!”
“But patience! there may come a time. When these dull ears shall scan aright Strains that outring earth’s drowsy chime, As Heaven outshines the taper’s light!”
Believer! are the dealings of thy God at present wearing a mysterious aspect to thee? Art thou about to enter some dark cloud, and exclaiming, “Yerily Thou art a God that Lid est Thyself?” Dost thou “fear to enter the cloud?” Take courage! It will be with thee, as with the disciples; unexpected glimpses of heavenly glory, — unlooked-for tokens of the Saviour’s presence and love await thee! If thy Lord lead thee into the cloud, follow Him. If He “constrain thee to get into the ship,” obey Him. The cloud will burst in blessings; the ship will conduct thee (it may be over a stormy sea) to a quiet haven at last! It is only the surface of the ocean that is rough. All beneath is a deep calm, and in every threatening wave there is a “need-be!”
Oh! trust Hiwy who is emphatically “The “Wisdom of God.” He is thy Counsellor — combining the prescience of God with the experience and sympathy of man. He thus, pre-eminently, “knows His client’s case.” He is pledged to use the discipline most wisely suited for each.
“O Thou whose wisdom guides my way,
Though now it seem severe,
Forbid my unbelief to say,
‘There is no wisdom here.’
.^ “Lord! if Thou bend my spirit low,
Love only I shall see;
The very hand that strikes the blow
Was wounded once for me.”
Under the blessed persuasion, that a day of disclosures is at hand, when, “in His light, I shall see light,” I will trust the wisdom I cannot trace, and repeat, each night, as the shadows of evening gather around me, until the nights of earth’s ignorance vanish before the breaking of an eternal day —
“I WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP; FOR THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY ‘”