p. 82 | Our Father Knoweth by H. W. Beecher

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 28, 1871

Our Father Knoweth.

By H. W. Beecher

“Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

That sentence hangs in the heavens like a bell to me; and every time I take hold of it, it is like a sexton’s taking hold of an old church bell. If I pull it, it rings—and I hear it every time—“Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” There is no part of your experience about which you need be afraid to stand and say, “God knows it.”

It is not that God merely knows these things as I know a thousand things when I read my morning paper, running my eye along column after column of advertisements, knowing that they are there, and having a general perception of what they are, but not caring a farthing for them, that is not the way God knows. And this passage is an argument to relieve from care and suffering those who trust in God. Our Saviour says that even those things which seem least likely to come under God’s attention—your clothes and bread—your Heavenly Father knows about; so do not be anxious.

A child tells its father, “Mother says we have no bread in the house, and it is Saturday night.” “But my child,” says the father, “I know all about that; do not trouble yourself.” And what does the child understand, but this? “I know; I have arranged for it; there is no occasion for anxiety.”

I recollect going, once, with my father a trout-fishing. I went with him many times; but I have a special recollection of this time. After riding a mile or two, we came into a road that was unfamiliar to me. There we stopped, and father hitched his horse—that was always safe to be hitched! He then gathered up his rod and line, and we started across the field.

Father went on throwing his line, without paying much attention to me. He was a natural-born fisherman, and he never threw his line in vain. When we had got across the first meadow, and were climbing over the fence into the second one, a strange fear came over me. We were in an out-of-the-way place, and I did not know the way home; and the thought of being lost frightened me. But I looked back and could see the carriage-top, and that dispelled my fears. So long as I could see the old chaise-top, I had no trouble in trusting my father! And there are many people who can trust God so long as they can see their way before them!

By-and-by we got so far that I could not see the chaise-top; and then my fear returned, and I said, “Pa, do you know the way home?” “Yes,” he said, and did not pay much attention to me. That made me feel a little better, and I got along very well till we came to the third fence, when my fears were stronger than before, and I came up to my father again, and said, “Pa, do you know the way home?” “Yes,” said he; but it scarcely crossed his mind what the meaning of it was. I was comforted once more, and I went on pitapat, pitapat, again, my heart going pitapat all the time, too, until we came to still another fence, where there was a kind of thicket, when I could not stand it any longer, and with tears on my face I cried out, “Pa, do you know the way home?” He turned round and put his arms about me, and said, “Why, Henry! I am ashamed of you. Yes, I know the way home. Do you suppose I would take you where I did not know the way?” And he patted me on the head, and parted the hair on my forehead; and I was perfectly content after that.

Now, we are following after our Heavenly Father in about the same way. So long as we can see the carriage-top we feel safe; but when there are no landmarks by which we can distinguish our course, we become frightened, and grow short of breath, and say, “Lord, dost thou know the way?” And he says, “Yes, your Heavenly Father knoweth.” And we are comforted for a little time. But by-and-by when we come where it is thicker and thicker, and our fears return, and increase, we break down, and with tears, say, “Lord, dost thou know the way?” And then his Spirit, with infinite tenderness and graciousness, puts his arms about us, and says, “Your Heavenly Father knoweth perfectly.”

Well, how far may you carry that trust? Just as far as you can carry life. It is a good thing to have sight. That helps faith. But there are emergencies in every man’s life, in which he can neither have sight, nor memory, nor experience. You must trust God, not because you see the law by which he is going to help you, but simply because he is your Father. And you will never hear it better expressed than it was by him of old, who said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” That is a tenet that will bear a man through almost everything. There is no difficulty; there is no sorrow; there is no threat in the future; there is no impending trouble that cannot be vanquished by the thought, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and I know that my Father knoweth.”—H. W. Beecher.