The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-03-15
Puzzled About God.
BY REV, THEODORE L. cUYLER

II am widow confined to my room
with sickness, and my kind, unsel6sh
daughter, who is sorely needed to take
care of the house, is almost worn out with
taking care of me. 1t is but little
while since my beloved husband died.
My faith is staggered and it is terribly
bard to say, "Thy will be done 7 I am
puzzled about Gods dealings Send me
word of comfort if you can. All
these things are against me- F"
The writer of this pathetic note is not
the only true Christian who is puzzled
about God. There may be hundreds of
others like her among my readers who
need similar word of comfort. The
trouble with yon, my good friends, is that
you are demanding an explanation of
your Heavenly Fathers dealings. If
God would take you behind the screen
and show you all the why's and where
fores of His mysterious providences,
where were the need of your faith. You
would walk by sight, as probably the
angels do. God says to your troubled
and faintipg heart, trust me You vir
tually reply, yea, I will trust just as
far as l can see, and no farther" You
demand that your loving Father shall
explain every step he takes; whereas be
is continually saying, Be still, my child,
and know that am God.
The patriarch Jacob was puzzled 10
the same way when he uttered that pitifnl
complaint, call these things are against
me-" Was it against Jacob that his fa-
vorite son Joseph was taken from him to
become the prime minister of Egypt 2
Was it against him that Benjamin was
carried off in order to return laden with
his brothers bounty Did God make
any mistake when he tried the patriarch's
faith and taught him some sweet lessons
by bitter experience7 The puzzle was
solved in Jacobs mind when the wagons
returned from Egypt and brought him
such wonderful tidings that he exclaim-
ed, ut is enough, it is enough !" Fifty
years hence who will be proved to be
right-you or God :?
Our whole difficulty arises from the
narrow and finite character of our minds.
We see only the merest fragment of our
Heavenly Fathers plans, and then 60
off and question the whole. This is as
absurd as if We we're to pronounce on the
contents of the Lenox Library from
reading single page in the first volume
we took down from the shelves. We
find fault with a shower if our garden
needs dry weather, or if we want fair
day for an excursion. We Judge God
childishly-6nding fault with the tapes
tries of his providence before they are
finished in his loom. We judge him
from wrong points of view. As I have
had occasion to cay before in these col
umus, we are on the under side, the dark
side of the overhapgiDg cloud. The
sorrowing widow who sends that pathetic
note is weeping on the dark side, while
her departed and glori6ed husband may,
from the heavenly heights, be gazing on
the celestial side of its overpowering
brightness. Our judgments are utterly
finite. Who can, by searching, find out
God? Now, we must be content to know
only in part, and to see through a. glass
darkly. What you consider spot on
the sun OF Gcd's love is only spot on
the glass you look through, or else
diseased spot in your poor eyes. If you
will borrow his spy.glass from the grand
old hero who wrote the epistle to the
Romans, you will discover this glorious
signal in the upper sky, Gall things
work together for good to them that love
God I" See to it that the devil does not
sour your heart towards your Father, or
turn the sweet tenderness of trust into
the gall of murmuripg unbelief.
After all, what wretchedly silly and
short sighted childfen we are Only
spelling out the alphabet in Gods infant
school, and yet aspiring to seat in his
cabinet How differently our life stories
will read when we have q chance to cor.
rect them in the clear light of heaven.
Then we shall discover that under the
head of Accidents" there was written
as in invisible ink, "The lot is cast into
the lap, but the disposiDg thereof is of
the Lord" On the page that We had
surrounded with black lines and inscrib-
ed it Obituaries" we shall see how
distinctly divine fuger has written,
"Whom I love I chasten." Beside the
record of that very husbands death, this
disconsolate widow may yet write, Il
thought that God meant it for evil, but l
found that he meant it for good"
Some of the hills of life are very steep,
my friends, and can only be climbed by
the sure foot of faith and with q steady
hold on the everlasting arm. In the
dark chamber we are often thrown down
on our knees. Cry as loudly as we may
in the driving mist for more light" we
receive only the answer, "Fear not, only
trust r' If we unloose our grip on Gods
hand for moment We 60 over the pre-
cipice. But the more tightly We cling
the less puzzled and dizzy we shall be-
come; the more willing we are to be
humbled, the more certainly We shall get
on upward; and by and by we shall
reach the gate Of pearl, and as Christ's
hand opens it, there will burst on us the
:r,ll, Aood ef oloru