you. Thank God for hiding the future
by John Macduff from Ripples in the Twilight 1885. There is no more gracious provision
for our happiness than what is contained in that brief saying
of scripture. We do not know what will happen
tomorrow. James chapter 4 verse 14. If
we knew in full, in this grief-stricken world, all that would befall
us in the future, how sad would existence be! It would leave
even prosperity without a note of gladness, for the certainty
of losing our blessings would rob us of all their enjoyment
while we retained them. And thus moments of unbounded
pleasure would be clouded with the dark characters of anticipated
sorrow. How would the mother's joy be
marred as the object of her tender solicitude and affection was
sporting by her side, or as she hung over the infant cradle,
if she could pry with certainty into the future and read the
mournful sequel of that little history? the lingering sickness,
the early grave, the blighted hopes, the desolated household,
the broken heart. To know the future would convert
the few brief years of possession of her blessing into consecutive
hours of agony. The consciousness and foreknowledge
that every moment was drawing nearer the fatal one, sitting
by time's sand-glass and marking grain by grain as they dropped
and fell, until the last grain of the diminishing heap announced,
the long dreaded hour has arrived. But thank God that the future
is veiled. The storm and coming wreck are
concealed in order that the calm of the present waveless sea may
be enjoyed. Yes, we again say thank God for
hiding the future and allowing us only to be conversant with
the joys and sorrows of today. You do not know what will happen
tomorrow. James chapter 4 verse 14