There Is Help in God for You.
THERE come to every soul who has left the ways of sin to walk in the highway of righteousness times of discouragement, hours of darkness. Hope seems to have forever fled. The pathway is shrouded with the blackness of darkness. Evil demons whisper to us out of the gloom innumerable temptations and doubts. God seems to have forgotten us, and left us a sport and a plaything to the spirits of darkness. "Beloved, think it not strange" that these experiences should come. Every aged saint of God, upon whose brow seems to rest the calm of eternal peace, has known the struggles alone in the darkness. Your case is unique only in the fact that it is yours and peculiar to you. It is no harder, no deeper in its blackness, than that of many others. Perhaps it is far lighter in shadows, shorter in its duration, less intense in its power to depress. Jesus, the Son of God, knew the power of these seasons of depression and fearful soul-conflict. He knew it in the desert of temptation for forty long days and nights. He knew it under the pale paschal moon, in the deep shadows of Gethsemane; when denied the comfort of His disciples, He could clutch the cold earth and pour out His agonizing prayer to the Father—"Thy will be done." And it is true of His children that— "All paths that have been or shall be
Pass somewhere thru Gethsemane." "Must kneel alone in darkness there
And battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who can not say,
'Not mine but Thine,' who only pray,
'Let this cup pass,' who do not see
The purpose in Gethsemane." Dry and shriveled would be the plant which had always the sunshine. Flaccid and weak would be the muscle which never knew the weariness of exertion. "God never would send you the darkness
If He thought you could bear the light;
And you would not cling to His guiding hand
If the way were always bright." Do these thoughts help you?—Perhaps not. Let us talk further. Settle these things forever: 1. God has no hatred, no thoughts of evil toward you. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end." Jer. 29:11. Know that God's thoughts are not affected by your moods or feelings. 2. However sinful you are, He wants to save you. "As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" Eze. 33:11. 3. Are your sins great and many? He says in tones of infinite appeal: "Tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." Isa. 1:18, 19. 4. But does the darkness abide? "Who is among you that feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the voice of His servant? he that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely upon his God." Isa. 50:10. 5. Are you beset on every side? and do the demons of darkness whisper, "There is no hope"? Answer them: "For the Lord Jehovah will help me; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. . . . Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me; who is he that shall condemn me?" Isa. 50:7-9. O soul, the whole Book abounds in life-giving promises. Do not trust your faith; rest in the power of God. Do not look to your weakness or unworthiness; the Son of God gave Himself to save you because you were weak and unworthy. There is no need in your life but what it is met in His own divine fulness. Cast feeling and fears to the winds and rest upon the eternal verities of His word. No man can shut His door of mercy; no human or demon can pluck you out of His hand. He will never turn from you. Why do you turn from Him? Why do you not return to Him?