Couple Heaven with It

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

Couple Heaven with It.

An aged Christian had paused to rest himself as he trudged along under a heavy load on a warm summer day. An acquaintance had just accosted him, when a splendid carriage rolled past, in which a haughty man rode, whose whole appearance bespoke a life of luxurious ease. “What do you think of the Providence of which you sometimes speak?” said an acquaintance. “You know that that is a wicked man; yet he spreads himself like a green bay-tree. His eyes stand out with fatness; he is not plagued as other men; while you, believing that all the silver and gold is the Lord’s, serving him and trusting in his providence, and toiling and sweating in your old age, get little more than bread and water. How can you reconcile this with a just Providence?”

The aged saint looked at the questioner with amazement, and, with the greatest earnestness, replied: “Couple Heaven with it! couple Heaven with it, and then?” Yes, that addition sweetens many a bitter cup, and enriches many a poor lot. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.”—Times of Refreshing.