Your happy condition here does not exempt you from pain, sorrow, and trials of various kinds. These you have to meet, as they come in their turn. But in the midst of them all, you may sympathize with the Psalmist when he said, "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope."[1] Let me exhort you therefore, to "hold fast the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end." Let your tribulations, trials and afflictions be what they may, "press" onward "toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" increasing and abounding in hope. Are you walking in darkness and have no light? Hear what your Almighty friend and father says to his afflicted Church, and hope on. "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness
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- ↑ Psa. cxxx.; 5.
