PROMISES by H. I. Farnum

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 7, 1868

PROMISES

By H. I. Farnum

What would the hungry soul do if it were not written “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled?” When a sense of natural depravity—of inborn pride, vanity, and a host of evil passions, comes like a pall over the spirit, almost shutting out the hope of Heaven; when we vainly search the heart for one vestige of holiness, and despairingly exclaim,

“Lord, I am faint, Athirst and hungry for the food That has no taste of earthly taint, The soul’s sustainment and its good.”

Then these words of Jesus, burst in with their light, tinging the clouds with gold. Yea, more; they tell that these tears, these anxious yearnings for the sinless, these sickening fears which afflict like an armed host, are a pledge that righteousness and peace shall sometime take their place.

Then, weary, weeping one, take courage! and know that the same Being who hath a care for the sparrows, will put thy tears into his bottle, and remember thy prayers.

When the faint heart quivers with pain, and feels keenest the poisoned arrows of injustice, ingratitude, or any of their kindred, when the billows of life’s sea roll heavily, and the toiling one seems to struggle in vain against their power—then, like a voice amid the tempest, calming the troubled soul, comes the assurance, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Ah! tired child; the storm will not hurt thee. Thou hast nothing to fear from the darkness, the thunders, or the waves. Whatever may assail, thou hast but one care. If in thy heart the love of God is living, these specious ills shall work out for thee an eternal weight of glory.

“Ah, yes! these toils, these prayers, these fears, These conflicts of the soul, These stern and angry storms of life, That o’er the spirit roll, Shall but refine and polish well Each rough, unsightly gem, And mould, and fashion it aright For Christ’s own diadem.”

When the night is so dark that we cannot find the way, and, conscious that human wisdom is inadequate to guide us through the maze of pitfalls that wait for the feet, we cry to God,

“Wilt thou instruct me? I am blind, And stretch my grasping hand for thine; The mist deceives my weary mind With glimmering lights that falsely shine. Wilt thou instruct me? I am weak, And cannot walk a step alone; Far off appears the good I seek, Far off, uncertain and unknown.”

Then, like a star shining through a sable cloud, shines out the promise, “If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

H. I. FARNUM.

Deerfield, Minn.