Think Not That the Blest...

Think not that the blest, whom the Lord hath befriended,
Though scorned by the world, and though smitten with grief,
Will be left by the arm, that has once been extended,
To suffer and perish without its relief.

Oh, no! When the clouds of affliction and sorrow
Encircle their souls with the darkness of night,
Thy mercy, Oh God, like the sun of to-morrow,
Shall gleam on the shadows and turn them to light.

He leaves us awhile to the billow's commotion,
To see if our faith in the storm will remain;
But soon He looks out in his smiles, and the ocean
Is hushed from its threats, and is quiet again.

— American Cottage Life (1850).

Holiness Joins Us to God

It  is of the nature of holiness to unite with whatever is like itself. It flies on eagle's wings to meet its own image. Accordingly the soul, so long as it is stained with sin, has an affinity with what is sinful. But when it is purified from iniquity, it ascends boldly upward and rests, by the impulse of its own being, in the bosom of its God. The element of separation is taken away, and a union, strong, sincere, and lasting, necessarily takes place. "He, that is joined unto the Lord, is one spirit." — 1 Cor. vi. 17.

— Religious Maxims (1846) XXXV.

Try Again

The power of Satan is great. And it is his appropriate business continually to assault the saints of God. If then, in some unhappy and evil moment, (by thine own fault be it remembered,) he gains an advantage, lament over it deeply, but do not be discouraged. Remember, if the great enemy gets from thee thy  resolution, thy fixed purpose, he gets all. To be defeated is not wholly to be destroyed. But on the contrary, he, and he only, hath victory written upon his forehead, who, in the moment of severest overthrow, hath still the heart to say, "with the Lord helping me I WILL TRY AGAIN."

— Religious Maxims (1846) XXXIII.

God is the Only True Fountain of Life

But if God is the only true Fountain, those who seek any other fountains will find them "broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 

When moral beings, in the exercise of their moral option, choose to seek their support and life from any source separate from God himself, they necessarily die. It cannot be otherwise. 

Created beings, as we have already seen, are necessarily dependent on their Creator. They have no power of making that which is not already made; — no power of absolute origination. 

It is true they have the power of choice, but they must choose among the things that are. They must either choose God, or that which is not God. 

If they choose, as their source of life and of supply, that which is not God, they look for help to that which has no help in itself, for life to that which has no life in itself, much less help and life for another. They ask "for bread, and they find a stone;" they ask "for a fish, and they find a serpent." They are compelled to say, in the language of the prodigal son, my father's hired servants "have bread enough and to spare, but I perish with hunger."

Their freedom, invaluable as it is, does not give them the power of doing or of enduring impossibilities, of drinking without water, of eating without food, of receiving while they turn aside and reject the hand of the great Giver.

— A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 1, Chapter 5.

Moral Freedom is the Gift of God

Let it be remembered, ... as a first truth in the doctrines of religious experience, that in all things God is the giver. Among the gifts which thus flow from God, is that high and invaluable one of moral freedom. In the exercise of that moral power, which is involved in the possession of moral freedom, men sometimes speak of it as their own possession, their own power but they cannot, with any propriety, speak of it as a power which is not given. The gift of freedom involves the possibility of walking in the wrong way, but it does not alter the straightness and oneness of the true way. The laws of holy living, although they are and can be fulfilled only by those who are morally free, are, nevertheless, unalterable. Founded in infinite wisdom, they necessarily have theIr permanent principles; and God himself, without a deviation from such wisdom, cannot change them. In the exercise of their moral choice, it is undoubtedly true, that men may endeavor to live in some other way, and to walk in some other path, than that which God has pointed out; but it does not follow from this that there is, or can be, more than one true way. God, in imparting to men the gift of moral freedom, has said to them, Life and death are before you; but he has not said, Ye can find life out of myself. He tells them, emphatically, there is but one Fountain; but having given them the freedom of choice, he announces to them, also, that they may either rest confidingly on his own bosom, and draw nourishment from that eternal fountain of life which is in himself, or may seek, in the exercise of their moral freedom, the nourishment of their spiritual existence from any other supposed source of life, with all the terrible hazards attending it.

— A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 1, Chapter 5.

To Pray Aright is to Receive

The exercises of a sanctified heart are not always the same; but will vary more or less with the occasions, which call them into exercise. The grace of patience is especially appropriate to one occasion; the grace of gratitude to another. And these and all other christian graces come from the same great fountain, viz. God himself; and they will come, with the exception perhaps of very extraordinary cases, all in the same way, and in connection with the same great principles.

If, for instance, I need especial wisdom and prudence, appropriate to a particular trying crisis, I must go to God and ask for it, just as I had done before in relation to the general object of sanctification: FIRST, in the spirit of entire consecration, and SECOND in the exercise of simple faith. And by faith here ... we mean a faith, which, fully believes that God will do, and that, if the present is in his view the appropriate time, he does even NOW accomplish that which he has promised.

Encouragement

Say not, 'tis all a dreary way,
With rocks beset, with briars growing,
Where never beams of sunlight stray,
And ne'er a gentle stream is flowing.

Or  if it be, that thou dost go
Through scenes so darksome, wild, and frightful,
Yet there is one who loves thee so,
That he can make e'en this delightful.

Jesus is ever near at hand,
To aid, to guide, and to deliver,
With his own arm, the chosen hand
Which he hath bought, to keep forever.

Then drive away thy doubts and fears,
Nor dread the ills that threat to hurt thee;
For Christ, that saw thee in thy tears,
Hath said, He never will desert thee.

— American Cottage Life (1850).