Separation from Christ.
By Hugh Macmillan
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors thru Him that loved us." No dark trials, no grievous judgment can cross our sky without leaving some spot of heavenly blue in the midst of it; or, if concealed for a moment, breaking forth again with greater brightness and beauty. No mysterious dispensation can ruffle the surface of our peace, and raise up agitating doubts and fears, without leaving behind a purer joy, a calmer and deeper satisfaction, that best and truest peace which is born of conflict and trouble. Behind every storm of trial and every cloud of sorrow is the heavenly blue of Christ's unchangeable love—a love stronger than death, a love that follows us amid all our changes of heart and of circumstances, and remains steadfast and unwavering, even when our love is suspicious and cold. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee," and every mutation of earth passes away from before that love, as the cloud from the sky and the wave from the ocean.—Hugh Macmillan.