He Careth for You by Mary Sisley

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1873

“He Careth for You.”

By Mary Sisley

These words have been the consolation and comfort of the true people of God in all ages, and under all circumstances, and especially when their surroundings seemed to them almost unendurable, and their enemies were about to triumph over them. When they were driven to their last extremity, and had proven their inability to care for themselves, then has our Heavenly Father interposed, and shown that he still careth for his children.

How plainly is his care made manifest in his dealings with the children of Israel during their bondage in Egypt. He says, I have seen their trials, and heard their groaning, and will bring them out of their afflictions unto a land of flowing milk and honey; and again he showed his care for them in opening the Red Sea, destroying their enemies; and in thus feeding them with angel’s food for a period of forty years’ while journeying through the wilderness; and finally in their introduction into the land of promise.

The prophets are an illustration of his care, as seen by his causing the ravens to bring Elijah bread and flesh, morning and evening, until the word of the Lord came unto him, bidding him arise and go to Zarephath where he had commanded a widow to sustain him. On arriving at the gate of the city, he found her gathering sticks in order to bake her last cake, that she and her son might eat and die. Elijah bade her bake him a cake first, and then make one for herself and son: “for thus saith the Lord, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail.” Thus did the Lord care for, and sustain, the prophet through a most severe famine of three years.

So also were Daniel and his companions made special subjects of his miraculous care—Daniel, by being preserved through a long, weary night in the lion’s den from the jaws of those ravenous beasts, and his companions, from the burning, fiery furnace, which their enemies had heated seven times hotter than usual.

These are not isolated instances of the Lord’s care for the children of men, but a few among the many; for he has said, “I will be with you always, even unto the end.”

When we are called to pass through the deep waters of affliction, how comforting to know that our Father tempers the wind and the wave; that they are only permitted to draw our minds from the transitory things of earth, that we may place them on Him—our never-failing source of strength. He has said, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Afflictions are only brought upon us to purge away the dross and cause the gold to shine the brighter.”

Unto those who are living in the last days, when Satan has come down in mighty power, knowing that his time is short, are these promises especially precious; for never in our world’s history was the care of our all-wise Heavenly Father more needed than at the present time, and never was it more manifestly shown than by the message of the third angel, which warns us against the worship of the beast, and the reception of his mark in our hands or in our foreheads, for those who worship the beast or receive his mark shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

This presents the most trying period the people of God ever have seen, or will see. On the one hand, the worship of the beast and the reception of his mark is enforced under the penalty of death; on the other, the wine of the wrath of God, poured out without mixture upon those who will basely and ungratefully set at naught his gracious warning. This constitutes the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth, and through which he has kindly pledged himself to keep his people. But the time for the saints’ rest has not yet come. Another terrific scene is yet to be witnessed by them—the pouring out of his unmixed wrath.

What is the condition of his people during this fearful time, when the scourge of God is falling upon the wicked around them? The Lord is their refuge and fortress; in him have they put their trust. “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”

MARY SISLEY.

Battle Creek, Mich.