For Help in Trouble
“Ttiougb. I walk in the midst of troulDle, Thou wilt revive me.” — Ps. cxxxviii. 7.
Most blessed Lord, who hast again permitted me to approach a throne of grace, do Thou this day shine into my heart. Anew may I enter on another day’s duties and trials, with a soul calm and peaceful amid all other disquietudes, by being at peace with Thee.
I bless Thee that I can ever “sing of mercy” as well as of “judgment.” Thy dealings might have been all in unmixed wrath, but the severest of them are tempered with gracious love. O that they may have their designed effect of driving me to the only true rest for the soul, in the bosom of its God! May the breaking of cistern by cistern only endear to me the more the great Fountain-head.
How often dost Thou send tribulations, that Thy people may see more of Thy gracious hand! How often, when the waters are troubled, do we recognize the presence of the great Covenant-angel himself, and experience the plenitude of His upholding grace and mercy! Lord, my earnest prayer is, that every trial may serve to unfold to me more of the preciousness of Jesus. As prop by prop, which was wont to support me on earth, may be giving way, may I know what it is to lean my whole weight iijpon Him, and leave my whole case with Him, repairing to Him as the friend that “sticketh closer than any ])rother” — into His sympathizing bosom to confide my every want — from His inexhaustible treasury to draw every consolation — and on His upholding arm confidingly and habitually to rest.
What, O blessed Saviour, are my troubles to Thine! What are my bitterest tears and most aching heart in comparison with what Thou didst so freely endure for me! May the remembrance of this Thy fellowship in my suffering, and my fellowship in Thine reconcile me patiently to endure whatsoever Thou seest meet to lay upon me. Give me grace ever to see that my bitterest trial is my sin, that my heaviest cross is the cross of my ] wandering treatjherous heart. When I think of that blessed time when God shall terminate the tears of a weeping world, may this be my loftiest ground of rejoicing — that there I will be then no more sin to cause them.
Humbly I would lie at my Saviour’s feet, disowning all trust save in Him — exulting in His finished work, and meritorious righteousness, and all-prevalent intercession. I rejoice to think of the redeemed multitude before His throne, “whom no man can number,” and to feel that His ability and willingness “to save unto the uttermost” are still the same.
Command, O Lord, thj richest blessing this day on all whom I love. May all my relatives be related to Thee in the common bonds of the gospel. Though separated by distance from each other on life’s highway, may we enjoy the consolation that we are all treading the same invisible road Zionward — that earth’s dearest and tenderest ties will, at the end of the chequered journey, be strengthened and perpetuated in the full vision and fruition of Thee our God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Ghost, be with me this day and ever. Amen.
“CAUSE MB TO HEAR THY LOVINO-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST.”