A Sure Paymaster

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 27, 1862

A SURE PAYMASTER.—That terrible saying of Anne of Austria to Richelieu holds true for mercy as well as for judgment: 'My lord cardinal, God does not pay at the end of every week, but at the last he pays.' God may put his faithful ones upon a long and faithful apprenticeship, during which they learn much and receive little—food only, and "that in a measure"—often the bread and water of affliction. Yet at the last he pays, pays them into their hearts, pays them into their hands also. We may remember long seasons of faint yet honest endeavor; the prayers of a soul yet without strength; the sacrifices of an imperfectly subdued will, bound even with cords to the altar; we may remember such times or we may soon forget them, but their result is with us. Some of the good seed sown in tears is now shedding a heavenly fragrance within our lives, and some of it will blossom, perhaps bear fruit, over our graves.—The Patience of Hope.