"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know
hereafter."--John xiii. 7.
The Unveiled Dealings.
O blessed day, when the long sealed book of mystery shall be unfolded,
when the "fountains of the great deep shall be broken up," "the channels
of the waters seen," and _all_ discovered to be one vast revelation of
unerring wisdom and ineffable love! Here we are often baffled at the
Lord's dispensations; we cannot fathom His ways:--like the well of
Sychar, they are deep, and we have nothing to draw with. But soon the
"mystery of God will be finished;" the enigmatical "seals," with all
their inner meanings, opened. When that "morning without clouds" shall
break, each soul will be like the angel standing in the sun--there will
be no shadow; all will be perfect day!
Believer, be still! The dealings of thy Heavenly Father may seem dark to
thee; there may seem now to be no golden fringe, no "bright light in the
clouds;" but a day of disclosures is at hand. "Take it on trust a little
while." An earthly child takes _on trust_ what his father tells him:
when he reaches maturity, much that was baffling to his infant
comprehension is explained. Thou art in this world in the nonage of thy
being--Eternity is the soul's immortal manhood. _There_, every dealing
will be vindicated. It will lose all its "darkness" when bathed in the
floods "of the excellent glory!"
Ah! instead of thus being as weaned children, how apt are we to exercise
ourselves in matters too high for us? not content with knowing that our
Father _wills_ it, but presumptuously seeking to know _how_ it is, and
_why_ it is. If it be unfair to pronounce on the unfinished and
incompleted works of man; if the painter, or sculptor, or artificer,
would shrink from having his labours judged of when in a rough,
unpolished, immatured state; how much more so with the works of God? How
we should honour Him by a simple, confiding, unreserved submission to
His will,--contented patiently to wait the fulfilment of this
"_hereafter_" promise, when all the lights and shadows in the now
half-finished picture will be blended and melted into one harmonious
whole,--when all the now disjointed stones in the temple will be seen to
fit into their appointed place, giving unity, and compactness, and
symmetry, to all the building.
And who is it that speaks these living "words," "What _I_ do?" It is He
who died for us? who now lives for us! Blessed Jesus! Thou mayest _do_
much that our blind hearts would like _un_done,--"terrible things in
righteousness which we looked not for." The heaviest (what we may be
tempted to call the severest) cross Thou canst lay upon us we shall
regard as only the _apparent_ severity of unutterable and unalterable
love. Eternity will unfold how _all_, _all_ was needed; that nothing
else, nothing less, could have done! If not now, at least then, the
deliberate verdict on a calm retrospect of life will be this,--
"_THE WORD_ OF THE LORD IS RIGHT, AND ALL HIS WORKS ARE DONE IN
TRUTH."