Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it not be to my sorrow! God granted him that which he requested.
There is a danger of saying, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace, and there is a calmness which arises from heartlessness. There are fools who deceive their own souls. “They have no doubts,” they say, but it is because they seldom search their hearts. They have no anxieties, because they do not have many activities or many pursuits to stir them up. Or it may be they have no pains, because they have no life. It is better to go to heaven, limping and maimed, than to go marching on in confidence down to hell. “Oh, that  you would bless me!”
