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TOPIC: MacDuff, John - Hospice Of Pilgrim (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 25 Misgiving Rebuked
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MISGIVING REBUKED
"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
"Said I not unto you, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God?" –John 11:40
Faith in Christ is an equivalent for Rest. He, the gracious Bestower of Rest, says "Come to Me--believe Me--trust Me, and your heavy burden, whatever it is, will at my appointed time be explained, lessened, or removed; and if not any of these, strength will be given to enable you to bear it."
There was much when the above words were spoken, to stagger and paralyze faith, and therefore to foster unrest. A beloved brother dead and a Savior absent! Unlike the daughter of Jairus, who was still laid on her coffin within the house, Lazarus had been three days committed to the sepulcher when the Great Physician appeared. The triumph of death in his case was complete. On all human calculations the doom seemed beyond reversal.
"Hush!" says the Redeemer. "Is anything too hard for the Lord? Man's extremity is My opportunity. Believe Me. Look beyond human frailty and the limitations of human power. 'With God all things are possible.' In the darkest seasons of depression, when faith and sight seem waged in unequal conflict, and victory inclining to the latter, dismiss unworthy impeachments of the divine Wisdom. You shall yet, it may even be in the midst of crossed and unanswered prayers, see the glory of God."
"We sadly watched the close of all,
Life balanced in a breath;
We saw upon his features fall
The dreadful shade of death.
All dark and desolate we were,
And murmuring nature cried–
'Oh, surely, Lord, had You been here,
Our brother had not died!'
"But when its glance the memory cast
On all that grace had done,
And thought of life's long warfare past
And endless victory won,
Then faith, prevailing, wiped the tear,
And looking upward, cried–
O Lord, You surely have been here;
Our brother has not died!" –Burns
Blessed Savior, give me grace to enter this secure Hospice revealed in the meditation of today, and to trust You in dark dispensations. Bestow upon me the rest of faith, confiding in You where I fail to discern Your footsteps, saying with one of these faithless yet faithful mourners--"But I know that even now, whatever You will ask of God, God will give it You." Sooner or later the cloud will have its silver lining; and my Bethany, whatever it be, now shrouded in funeral gloom, will be bathed in sunshine. The web woven with impaired vision and trembling fingers will then be seen to be no piece of disordered and inharmonious patchwork. "There is no complete answer to the question," says a leader of religious thought, "within the range of our present knowledge. We feel here that we only see the fringe of a vaster system of government than we can yet take measure of." "Glory to God for all," were Chrysostom's last words.
"There are days of silent sorrow
In the seasons of our life,
There are wild despairing moments,
There are hours of mental strife,
There are times of stony anguish,
When the tears refuse to fall;
But the waiting-time, my brothers,
Is the hardest time of all.
"But at last we learn the lesson
That God knows what is best;
For with wisdom comes patience,
And of patience comes rest;
Yes, a golden thread is shining
Through the tangled woof of fate,
And our hearts shall thank Him meekly
That He taught us how to wait."
–Psalms of Life
"Said I not unto you?" I can fill up, with all His spoken promises, that blank cheque. I shall recognize troubles and sorrows only as the steps leading upward to the Heavenly Hospice. I shall look forward by anticipation, and see life's sanctuary, the temple of existence, no longer a half-completed structure, a half-developed plan, with pillars broken, and aisles unroofed, and windows bared to the storm, but standing out, the completed "building of God," in the fair and finished proportions of eternity. Meanwhile I can sing even through tears this "song in the night"– "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Commit your way unto the Lord--trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass."
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest. This is the place of repose." Isaiah 28:12