BELOVED in the Lord Jesus, be well assured that He, whose nature and whose name is love, will mete out to you the greatest possible measure of earthly happiness, and the least possible measure of earthly trial and suffering, compatible with the accomplishment of the gracious purpose of His everlasting love and with your welfare. What can you desire more than this to keep your soul, reposing on your heavenly Father’s love, in perfect peace? There is one verse, shining with pre-eminent splendor amidst a nucleus of bright and precious promises, which, more persuasively than ten thousand arguments, ought to rebuke every distrustful suspicion about God’s dealings, and silence every unbelieving fear about His love. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” My brother, my sister, is not that verse worth ten thousand worlds to you? It is to me.
Do you doubt His love? What unnecessary suffering will He inflict on you, who, to save you from everlasting sufferings, spared not His own Son? What real good will He withhold from you, who withheld not Him? What real blessing will He not freely give you, who freely gave Him for you? What will He allow you to want, that is not better for you to want, who would not allow you to want everlasting salvation, though, to purchase it for you, He delivered up His own, His only, His well-beloved Son to death, even the death of the Cross? Oh! what a precious promise. How many weary pilgrims has it not already refreshed, comforted, gladdened! and it is, this moment, a never-failing spring of consolation and joy, as fresh, as full as ever. It is that wondrous question, “How shall He not?” which makes it so full of Divine comfort. It is the implied impossibility, because the implied insult to the Son of God, involved in the supposition that there is any blessing which He, who loved you well enough to give His own Son for you, does not love you well enough to give; as if there was some blessing dearer to the Father’s heart, more precious in the Father’s sight, than His own Son! Is there any dearer or more precious in yours, beloved one? Is there any you more highly prize, more earnestly desire, or would more gratefully receive? If you shudder at the thought, will you seem, by discontent, disquietude, or distrust, to tell God that there is such a blessing―one dearer and more precious to you than Christ Himself, the want of which strips that promise of its consolation?
Whatever, then, be your trials, your sufferings, cast yourself on this one verse, this one promise, and all will be peace and rest. Whatever your trials―for I say not that trials, deep, agonizing, desolating trials, may not be sent; but I do say, that if they are, they will be sent by the Father, even as He sent His Son, in love―they will come, as Jesus came; “with healing on their wings.”
The earthly props you have loved to lean upon may be all taken from you―it will only be that you may lean more confidently on the arm of Jesus. The earthly gourds, under whose shadow you so loved to repose, may all be withered―it will be only that you may rest in sweeter peace under the shadow of a Saviour’s love. The earthly cisterns, out of which you so delighted to drink, may all be broken―it will only be that you may drink more deeply from the fountain of living waters, the only fountain of satisfying happiness. Say of every dispensation, every trial, “It is well,” “My Jesus hath done all things well.” Be careful for nothing; for, for every need you have, there is a corresponding grace in Jesus. Be careful for nothing; but in a spirit of faithful carelessness cast all your care on Him, who so cares for, so loves you, that He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for you. Leave all cheerfully in His hands, receive all thankfully from His hands, and all will be well.
“Though we pass through tribulation,
All will be well.
Ours is such a full salvation―
All, all is well.
“Happy! still in God confiding;
Fruitful, if in Christ abiding;
Holy, through the Spirit’s guiding; ―
All must be well.
“We expect a bright tomorrow―
All will be well.
Faith can sing, through days of sorrow―
All, all is well.
“On our Father’s love relying,
Jesus every need supplying,
Or in living or in dying,
All must be well!”
T. S. H.