THE ABIDING FRIEND I will never
leave you nor forsake you. No human friend can say so. The
closest and dearest of earthly links may be broken, yes, have
been broken. Distance may part, time a strange,
and the grave separate. Loving earthly looks may only
greet you now in mute smiles from the portrait on the wall.
But here is an unfainting, unvarying, unfailing friend. Sorrowing one,
amid the wreck of earthly joys which you may be bewailing, here
is a message sent from your God. I will never leave you, nor forsake
you. Your gourd has withered, but
he who gave it you remains. Surrender yourself to his disposal. He wishes to show you his present
sufficiency for your happiness. as often your heart in silence
and sadness weaves its plaintive lament, Joseph is not, and Simeon
is not. Think of him who has promised
to set the solitary in families, and to give unto them a name
and a place better than of sons or of daughters. Alone? You are not alone. Turn in self-oblivion
to Jesus. It is not, it cannot be night,
if He, the Son of your soul, be ever near. In the morning
He comes with the earliest beam that visits your chamber. When
the curtains of night close around you, He, to whom the darkness
and the light are both alike, is at your side. In the stillness
of night, when in your wakeful moments the visions of the departed
flit before you like shadows on the wall, he, the sleepless
Shepherd of Israel, is tending your couch and whispering in
your ear, Fear not, for I am with you. Your experience may
be that of Paul. All forsook me. But, like him
also, you will doubtless be able to add in the extremity of your
sorrow. Nevertheless, the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me. He can compensate by his own
loving presence for every earthly loss. Without the consciousness
of his friendship and love, the smallest trial will crush you. with Him in your trial, supporting
and sustaining you under it, yes, coming in the place of those
you mourn, you will have an infinite and inexhaustible portion in
the place of a finite and mutable one. Many a cloud is there without
a rainbow in nature, but never in grace. Every sorrow has its
corresponding and counterpart comfort. In the multitude of
the sorrows that I had in my heart, your comforts have refreshed
my soul. If, in the midnight of your grief,
your earthly sun appears to have set for ever, an inner but not
less real sunshine lights up your stricken heart. This dream
of life may have been poisoned at its source. But, blessed be
His name, if it has driven you to say, All my springs are in
you. The Lord is my portion, says
my soul, therefore I will hope in Him.