Saturday, December 5, 2015

O Lord! I would delight in thee,
And on thy care depend;
To thee in every trouble flee,—
My best, my only Friend.

When all created streams are dried,
Thy fulness is the same;
May I with this be satisfied,
And glory in thy name!

Why should the soul a drop bemoan,
Who has a fountain near;
A fountain which will ever run
With waters sweet and clear?

No good in creatures can be found,
But may be found in thee;
I must have all things, and abound,
While God is God to me.

Oh, that I had a stronger faith,
To look within the veil,
To credit what my Saviour saith,
Whose words can never fail!

He, that has made my heaven secure,
Will here all good provide;
While Christ is rich, can I be poor?
What can I want beside?

O Lord!  I cast my care on thee;
I triumph and adore;
Henceforth my great concern shall be
To love and please thee more.
                    Dr. Ryland


Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.  Psalms 42:5

My Dear Sir,
You say you are more disposed to cry miserere than hallelujah.  Why not both together?  When the treble is praise, and heart-humiliation for the bass, the melody is pleasant, and the harmony is good.  However, if not both together, we must have them alternately; not all singing, not all sighing, but an interchange and balance, that we may be neither lifted too high nor cast down too low,—which would be the case if we were very comfortable or very sorrowful for a long continuance.  But though we change, the Saviour changes not.  All our concerns are in his hands, and therefore safe.  His path is in the deep waters, his thoughts and methods of conduct are as high above ours as the heavens are high above the earth; and he often takes a course for accomplishing his purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe.  He wounds in order to heal, kills that he may make alive, casts down when he designs to raise, brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects, when he is about to give us the desire of our hearts.  These things he does to prove us; but he himself knows, and has determined beforehand, what he will do.  The proof indeed usually turns out to our shame.  Impatience and unbelief show their heads, and prompt us to suppose this and the other thing, yea perhaps all things are against us, to question whether he be with us and for us, or not.  But it issues likewise in the praise of his goodness, when we find that, mangre all our unkind complaints and suspicions, he is still working wonderfully for us, causing light to shine out of darkness, and doing us good in defiance of ourselves.
                                                                           a letter by John Newton dated November 6, 1777

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