thousand currents and cross-currents; and though you plan for nine hundred and ninety-nine of the possibilities of life, it is the thousandth eventuality, on which you did not calculate, which comes to throw all your plans into confusion. Nor can you bind the thoughts and purposes of the generation which will follow. Abandon your attempt to chain the lusty limbs of the future's strong ones in the dead fetters of bygone days. These, and a score of good reflections, are covered by the wording of the text. Take all in a word: You cannot know what the future will be; better leave it in the hands of God. Your dreams are idle. Your speculations are idle. You must take short views of life. It is better to trust in the Lord than to wear your heart out in fret and care and brooding desire to plan a future which mocks your planning. In the day of prosperity, enjoy your prosperity and give God thanks. In the day of adversity, make the best of it, and still give God thanks. It is by the special mercy of our God that we only live one day at a time! Never was more precious boon included in the course and constitution of this universe of ours! To-day you only have to live to-day. Do not live to-morrow before it comes. No man has ever broken down under the burdens of to-day. In one day he will not be afflicted beyond his strength to do and to endure. You break down only when in your un-faith you add to-morrow's burdens to those you bear to-day. Then your strength gives way and you are lost. Do nothing of all this. Your times are in God's hands. Be satisfied to leave them there. But this I ought to say. You cannot trust; you have no right to trust-if you could force yourself to trust, your confidence would be misplaced-unless your life is right with God. The confidence which Jesus taught is a simple and a lovely thing. It is not manly resignation, which is a virtue in default of a better. It is not Stoic heroism and endurance, which the brave may attain and which the bravest will not despise. It is something higher, sweeter, more precious, and, thank God, more common than these. It is Communion. It is Fellowship. It is not prayer for deliverance from trouble, nor prayer for material gifts. It is the secret and intimate relation of a happy child who is content so long as he is sure that his father is by his side. This is the unbroken Fellowship with the Father in which Jesus lived. This is the trust in God to which He invites us, and the promise of peace which He makes to the untroubled heart. Draw near to God in Christ, and the promises of an elder day will assume for you fresh meaning and power in all the vicissitudes of your life. Friends may fail us when the hour of adversity comes, but When my father and my mother forsake me, Storms may break upon us, but The Lord sat enthroned as King at the Flood; Distance may part us from our loved ones, and in the deep darkness we may fear to lose them; yet Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: If I make my bed in Sheol, behold Thou art there. And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, And Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm me, Even the darkness hideth not from Thee, But the night shineth as the day: The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee! This is the infinite joy of living-to know that we are safe in the Father's hands because we are dear to the Father's heart. Fear no future, since your hands are clasped in His. You cannot know the future. Your wisdom is not to seek to know, but to rest in that great word of Christ's: "Your Father knoweth." O ye of little faith, your Father knoweth all. |