Storms and Tempests, Whirlwinds
and Hurricanes by James Makel Converse with the Unseen World
I am the man who has seen affliction. Like the rest of Adam's discontented
family, I am often grumbling at my griefs, complaining of
my afflictions, and on the brink of quarreling at the conduct
of providence itself. To be without afflictions is
impossible here below, where man is born to trouble as the
sparks fly upward. Not to feel when afflicted is
a stoical, impious stupidity, but to sink under troubles of
any kind is beneath the character of the Christian. Yet when I
reflect on that eternity of bliss which is before me, on that world
of glory of which I am an heir, I wonder that my afflictions
are not more. Is it too much for me to stumble
among the rough stones of adversity, to have my flesh pricked with
the thorns of trouble, who shall so soon walk the golden streets
of heaven, and wear a crown of immortal glory? Though the whole
earth should rise up against me, if heaven and the God of
heaven are for me, I am in perfect safety in the midst of all the
storms and tempests whirlwinds and hurricanes which can blow.
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction
or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger
or sword? No. In all these things, we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Romans chapter 8, verse
35 to 39 you