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THOUGHTS IN TRIAL

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 8, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 23.

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THOUGHTS IN TRIAL.

By L. A. Cartwright

Our longing hearts think of the perfect Pattern, and remembering our frail natures, our feeble efforts, the hosts of sin and Satan that beset us, and how unlike Jesus we are, discouraged, trembling, and dismayed, we near the borders of despair. Then, like a beam of glory caught from the inner heavens, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” encourages us to go forward trusting in his promise, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Our Saviour took not on him the nature of angels, but our weak human nature—just as we are except sin. He entered into the joys and sorrows of humanity, loving all with the pitying love of the Son of God, and with his human nature feeling preferences like ours. He wept at the grave of Lazarus, rejoiced with the guests at the marriage in Cana, and manifested such intense affection for one of his followers that he is called “that disciple whom Jesus loved.” When many were offended because of the truths he spake, and walked with him no more, he cried out in the anguish of his spirit to his twelve disciples, “Will ye also go away?” So, in the sad night of his betrayal, when his soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, he still longed for the society and sympathy of his chosen.
O ye tempted, tried, bereaved and deserted ones, think how your Saviour felt on that dread night when friends forsook him and his disciples fled. We know not how to speak of thee, Gethsemane, or of that terrible agony when he bore our sins upon the cross. Turn to the sacred record and read. Dear Saviour, how very human thou wast, and yet divine! Oh, to bear trials as thou didst bear them, and to meet temptations as thou didst meet them!
He took our nature, that we might be made partakers of his divine nature. In the world we shall have tribulation, but in him we may have peace. Rays of light and precious promises are given to cheer us on our dreary pilgrimage. The Comforter has come, and the truly faithful can rejoice even in tribulation; for the scenes of this world will soon be ended, and there is a better land “wherein dwelleth righteousness,” where the inhabitant shall not say, “I am sick,” and sin and sorrow can never enter. A little while and the graves shall give up their dead; and when the aching heart of the mourner inquires, “Shall we know each other there?” down through the rolling ages comes the reply, “We shall know, even as we are known.” May the Lord help us so to live that we shall be ready to meet our Saviour, be made like him, and see him as he is.
L. A. CARTWRIGHT.