Fortitude Under Affliction
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former years, my husband and myself made this grove our sanctuary.
Among these mountains we often bowed together in worship and
supplication. All around me were the places which had been thus
hallowed; and as I gazed upon them, I could recall many instances in
which we there received direct and remarkable answers to prayer....
“How near we seemed to God, as in the clear moonlight we bowed
upon some lonely mountain side to ask for needed blessings at His
hand! What faith and confidence were ours! God’s purposes of love
and mercy seemed more fully revealed, and we felt the assurance that
our sins and errors were pardoned. Upon such occasions I have seen
my husband’s countenance lighted up with a radiance that seemed
reflected from the throne of God, as in changed voice he praised the
Lord for the rich blessings of His grace. Amid earth’s gloom and
darkness, we could still discern on every hand gleams of brightness
from the Fount of light. Through the works of creation we communed
with Him who inhabiteth eternity. As we looked upon the towering
rocks, the lofty mountains, we exclaimed, ‘Who is so great a God as
our God?’
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“Surrounded, as we often were, with difficulties, burdened with
responsibilities, finite, weak, erring mortals at best, we were at times
almost ready to yield to despair. But when we considered God’s love
and care for His creatures, as revealed both in the book of nature and on
the pages of inspiration, our hearts were comforted and strengthened.
Surrounded by the evidences of God’s power and overshadowed by
His presence, we could not cherish distrust or unbelief. Oh, how often
have peace, and hope, and even joy, come to us in our experience amid
these rocky solitudes!
“Again I have been among the mountains, but alone. None to share
my thoughts and feelings as I looked once more upon those grand
and awful scenes! Alone, alone! God’s dealings seem mysterious, his
purposes unfathomable; yet I know that they must be just, and wise,
and merciful. It is my privilege and my duty to wait patiently for Him,
the language of my heart at all times being, ‘He doeth all things well.’
“My husband’s death was a heavy blow to me, more keenly felt
because so sudden. As I saw the seal of death upon his countenance,
my feelings were almost insupportable. I longed to cry out in my
anguish. But I knew that this could not save the life of my loved one,
and I felt that it would be unchristian to give myself up to sorrow. I