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Deceitfulness of Riches
247
gracious heavenly Father; and you thought you never again would
doubt His love nor distrust His care. You did not seek for ease. You
did not consider hard labor a burden if the way would only open that
you might care for your children and shield them from the iniquity
prevailing in this age of the world. It was the burden of your heart
that you might see them turning to the Lord. You pleaded before
God for your children with strong cries and tears. Their conversion
you
so much
desired. Sometimes your heart would despond and
faint, and you would fear that your prayers would not be answered;
then again you would consecrate your children to God afresh, and
your yearning heart would lay them anew upon the altar.
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When they went into the army, your prayers followed them. They
were wonderfully preserved from harm. They called it good luck;
but a mother’s prayers from an anxious, burdened soul, as she felt
the peril of her children and the danger of their being cut off in their
youth without hope in God, had much to do with their preservation.
How many prayers were lodged in heaven that these sons might be
preserved to obey God, to devote their lives to His glory! In your
anxiety for your children you pleaded with God to return them to
you again, and you would seek more earnestly to lead them in the
path of holiness. You thought you would labor more faithfully than
you had ever done.
The Lord suffered you to be schooled in adversity and affliction,
that you might obtain an experience which would be valuable to
yourself and others. In the days of your poverty and trial you loved
the Lord, and you loved religious privileges. The nearness of Christ’s
coming was your consolation. It was a living hope to you that you
would soon find rest from labor, and the end of all your trials; when
you would find that you had not labored nor suffered too much; for
the apostle Paul declares: “Our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.”
To meet with the people of God seemed to you almost like visit-
ing heaven. Obstacles did not deter you. You could suffer weariness
and hunger for temporal food, but you could not be deprived of
spiritual food. You earnestly sought for the grace of God, and you
did not seek in vain. Communion with the people of God was the
richest blessing you could enjoy.