I CAN sympathise with you in your trials, having myself experienced many such in the wilderness, and to me these have made it a valley of Baca or a vale of tears.
I would be thankful that any lines of mine should have been made useful to you, and could be more thankful still might I be enabled to write anything at this time for your edification and comfort. You wish me to give you a few thoughts on Ps. xxxvii. 3—”Trust in the Lord,” etc. You will understand the meaning of these words as they apply to temporal things, therefore I shall confine my remarks to what I believe to be their spiritual intention.
“Trust in the Lord.” God says, I taught Ephraim to go, taking them by the arms. God has quickened your soul by His Spirit, convinced you of sin, and led you to the fountain of Christ’s blood for pardon and peace; He has bestowed both upon you. You have experienced the drawings of the Father. Sensible comforts, as leading strings, have drawn you to Christ, that you might trust and rejoice in His dear name.
You have found it very easy to trust in the Lord when drawn and supported by sensible comforts; in this way the Lord first taught you to go. When we are sensibly strengthened and the promise is unto us a cluster of the rich grapes of Eshcol, it is very sweet and mighty easy to trust in the Lord; and now you have to learn what it is by a naked faith to trust in a naked promise. “Be strong”—in the absence of sense, sight, and comfort—”when hope decays, and God delays, and seems to quite forsake us.” To trust in Him is the hardest work to do, especially when all God’s dealings and all His providences seem to cross His promises. To believe in hope against hope, when nature fails, and sight and sense and means are no more; even then true faith (after a fainting fit or two) will sometimes in her Creator’s strength get up, close her eyes and senses to whys, whens, hows, and wherefores, men, means, and instruments, and against hope, steadfastly believe in hope.
When a divine faith gets up she bolts the door upon the scoffing crew, laughs at impossibilities, and says “It shall be done.” Then, to trust in the Lord is to adventure upon Him, and to rest in Him, even when unbelief would vilify the God of Truth, and that atheistical scoffer, Carnal Reason, would call us fools and fanatics for such a wild-goose adventure.
This is your present lesson and mine in Christ’s college; the Lord strengthen and qualify us for it! That word still sounds in our ears, “Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward, for ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry; for the just shall live by faith.”
“To trust His gracious promise,
When sore beset with evil,
This, this is faith will conquer death,
And overcome the devil.”
“Trust in the Lord,” etc. But to show the world and ourselves that, although our faith is but little, it is not a dead faith, the Holy Ghost exhorts us to “do good”—namely, to obey our Lord’s precepts and walk as obedient children, carefully to observe the rules of the house, and honour our Master in them. Grace does all for us, and works all in us. “So shalt thou dwell in the land.” God in Christ is our portion, our inheritance, our land. He inherits us, and we inherit Him. The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance (Eph. i.)
If God be our dwelling place, our inheritance, He must be our Lord. Cannaan’s land was a type of Gospel rest and of Gospel privileges; therefore these are in a time state our land. So shalt thou dwell in the land—that is, Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou enjoy the highest and best privileges of the saints on earth, now and then sliding for a few moments into promised rest by faith, and sitting with Christ and with saints and angels in heavenly places.
“And verily, verily thou shalt be fed.” Christ, His presence, and His doctrine, and His promises are the bread of life; He is the fatted calf, tender and good, for prodigals dressed. His Spirit is living water. Comfort is honey out of the rock. His unction is the marrow of divinity which He gives to His children, whilst dogs that are without gnaw the bones. Trying providences and hard tevts of Scripture are Gospel nuts. The Father’s love and Christ’s blood well mingled are the wine of the blessed, and these are well refined and free from dregs. God’s table is the board of plenty, and the board of health too, and there you may eat, and so may I.
But whilst here we must have fast days as well as feast days. “A little while and ye shall not see me”—that makes us sad; “A little while and ye shall see me”—this makes us glad. In the time of famine you shall be satisfied, for lest we should miss a meal God has undertaken to feed us Himself. “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.” The times of refreshing come from His presence; and though unsent, shepherds blow their serannel pipe and the lean and hungry sheep look up but are not fed, Christ will not serve you so. No, He will lead you in green pastures, in a good land and large, and by the sweet waters of quietness, where you shall lie down and none make you afraid. Upon the high mountains of Israel shall their folds be. “Verily thou shalt be fed.” Here is the solemn affirmation of a Triune Jehovah—then you shall “eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions to them to whom nothing is (ministerially) prepared.” You shall find it so. Therefore, the Lord help you to trust in His dear name!
I have found it good to write to you. May a divine unction fall upon your spirit, and you shall find it good to read these scraps as an earnest of a full-soul feast. Remember, my dear sister, that Jesus Christ is our daily manna; His flesh is meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed. Here you may eat and drink and forget your poverty, which may the Lord grant for His own name and mercy’s sake. Amen and amen!
I wish I could, as you exhort me, give my fears to the winds. I have a great presentiment that I am going into a great fight of affliction, for “in every city bonds and afflictions abide me,” and it is only now and then I can feelingly say “None of these things move me.” Still I have a hope that however deeply plunged in tribulation, and although all men should forsake me, the Lord will not, but that, in due time, the good Lord will deliver me from all my foes and all my fears, and that I shall sing His praises on the bright hills of everlasting day, and live to see that I have not had one trouble too many or too heavy. O to be favoured to hold the conqueror’s palm and sing the conqueror’s song!
As the Lord enables you, pray for a poor tried one. You see how large a letter I have written to you with mine own hand. May the Lord make it the means of refreshing your soul and secure the glory to Himself! And when it is well with you, remember me.
ED. BLACKSTOCK.