Year: 1867

Every wise servant of God walks and
works ''by faith, and not by sight" The
Christian must be like one who rows a
boat iii yonder crowded New York Bay.
The oarsmen sit with their backs to the
bow, and cannot see what is before the
boat. But the helmsmen at the stern
looks forward, and steers the boat with
ersoever he will.


So the servants of Christ in their under
takings sit with their backs toward the
future. They cannot see an inch before
them. They cannot tell what the NOR
row will bring forth. But it is their busi-
ness to pull at the oar of prayer and
earnest labor There is divine helms
man, who "seeth the end from the be-
gining." He knows the future and he
holds the rudder in his hand. 1t is our
business to row it. is the province of the
Omniscient to steer the vessel. We
commit our way unto the Lord, and he
bringeth it to pass. This whole business
OF rowing backward through life is amat-
ter of trust in God


When the Apostle Paul set off for
Rome at the bidding of his master, he
did not know the things which should
befall him there. He could not foresee
that he was to encounters a prison and
martyrs bloody AK beside the city gates.
He rowed, and God was the helmsman !;
and Paul was willing, yea, 'joyful," to
endure all that was in store for him.
When Clarkson and Grandvile Sharp set
in motion the mighty enterprise against
negro slavery and the slave trade, they
could not anticipate the twenty years of
Malignant opposition through which
they and their associate Wilberforce
were doomed to pass. But God steered
the craft of emancipation; it was freight
ed with the hopes of millions of Africa's
bleeding children; it was guided to the
haven of final success


No one of US, when we set out in a
holy undertaking, tan foresee the diff
culties to be encountered. No penitent
soul who comes to Jesus can possibly
know all the difficult OF trying paths
through which Christ may lead him. 1t
| is well for us that we cannot foresee the
future. Wemight often be discouraged
by the hardships and perils that beset
the path of duty. Had the loyal peo-
pie of America foreseen, when the first
shot was fired at Sumter, that it would
cost three hundred thousand precious
| lives and two billions of debt to return
that shot, perhaps the stoutest patriotism
might have wayered. But the nations
sway" was committed to the Lord. We
rowed through sea of blood the Provi-
| 4 +lo+ hah hor RI 4 ha IN un1,
of freedom only four years off.


Is it not strange that we do not trust
our God more cordially and implicitly
The patient SO trust his physician that he
swallows the prescription, whose words
are in Latin, and the ingredients he rare
ly knows anything about. The bride
Yields her hand and her worldly welfare
to him beside whom she stands at the
marriage altar. Three-score thousand sc
trust the leadership of Sherman that they
are ready to follow him through vast
hostile region to the sea. Who so wor
thy of human trust as he who never
broke promise and never disappointed
a wise expectation? His words are yea
and amen in Christ Jesus Though the
heavens and the earth pass away, not
one word which he utters shall pass a
way until it be fulfilled.


/ It is not needful to exhort any one te
trust God in the sunshine; that is easy
enough. Trust him in the storm. Wher
black night shuts down on the horizon
extinguishing every star when no light
house of human guidance is in sight
4 when deep calleth unto deep in the roar
ofits pillows, then cast out the anchor
of faith and wait for the day! Never
night SO dark or SO long but it has 9
naOrning-star behind it. 1t is easy to


commit our way unto the Lord, when i
4 is as clear as the MONDAY, But faitl
says, Commit that way to him when yol
cannot see your hand before your face


God can see IN the dark: don't you be
.'licve it ? 9 H