"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"The very hairs of your head are all numbered."--Matt. x. 30.
The Tender Solicitude.
What a "word" is this! All that befals you, to the very numbering of
your hairs, is known to God! Nothing can happen by accident or chance.
Nothing can elude His inspection. The fall of the forest leaf--the
fluttering of the insect--the waving of the angel's wing--the
annihilation of a world,--all are equally noted by Him. Man speaks of
great things and small things--God knows no such distinction.
How especially comforting to think of this tender solicitude with
reference to his own covenant people--that He metes out their joys and
their sorrows! Every sweet, every bitter is ordained by Him. Even
"_wearisome_ nights" are "_appointed_." Not a pang I feel, not a tear I
shed but is known to Him. What are called "dark dealings" are the
ordinations of undeviating faithfulness. Man _may_ err--his ways are
often crooked; "but as for God, _His_ way is perfect!" He puts my tears
into His bottle. Every moment the everlasting arms are underneath and
around me. He keeps me "as the apple of His eye." He "bears" me "as a
man beareth his own son!"
Do I look to the future? Is there much of uncertainty and mystery
hanging over it? It may be, much premonitory of evil. Trust Him. All is
marked out for me. Dangers will be averted; bewildering mazes will show
themselves to be interlaced and interweaved with mercy. "He keepeth the
feet of His saints." A hair of their head will not be touched. He leads
sometimes darkly, sometimes sorrowfully; most frequently by cross and
circuitous ways we ourselves would not have chosen; but _always_
wisely, _always_ tenderly. With all its mazy windings and turnings, its
roughness and ruggedness, the believer's is not only _a_ right way, but
THE right way--the best which covenant love and wisdom could select.
"Nothing," says Jeremy Taylor, "does so establish the mind amidst the
rollings and turbulence of present things, as both a look above them and
a look beyond them; above them, to the steady and good hand by which
they are ruled; and beyond them, to the sweet and beautiful end to
which, by that hand, they will be brought." "The Great Counsellor," says
Thomas Brooks, "puts clouds and darkness round about Him, bidding us
follow at His beck through the cloud, promising an eternal and
uninterrupted sunshine on the other side." On that "other side" we shall
see how every apparent rough blast has been hastening our barks nearer
the desired haven.
Well may I commit the keeping of my soul to Jesus in well-doing, as unto
a faithful Creator. He gave _Himself_ for me. This transcendent pledge
of love is the guarantee for the bestowment of every other needed
blessing. Oh, blessed thought! my sorrows numbered by the Man of
Sorrows; my tears counted by Him who shed first His tears and then His
blood for _me_. He will impose no needless burden, and exact no
unnecessary sacrifice. There was no redundant drop in the cup of His own
sufferings; neither will there be in that of His people. "Though He slay
me, yet will I trust in Him."
"WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH _THESE WORDS_."