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Daughters of God
by the grace of Jesus Christ and in the bonds of Christian sympathies
made sacred by afflictions.
We will, if we meet no more upon earth, have tender, unforgotten
memories of our short association with the family at Long Point. I am
glad to have met you. I believe that in the providence of God that it is
ordered that you be a member of the Brown family. In your association
with them the Lord has made you an instrument of righteousness, a
blessing especially to Sister Brown. I have very kindly, tender feelings
for you, and especially for Sister Brown, understanding the sorrows of
her life.
Afflictions are oft mercies in disguise. We know not what we might
have been without them. When God in His mysterious providence
overthrows all our cherished plans, and we may receive sorrow in the
place of joy, we will bow in submission and say, “Thy will, Oh God,
be done.” We must and we will ever cherish a calm, religious trust in
One who loves us, who gave His life for us. “The Lord will command
his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be
with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God
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my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? ... Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall
yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
The Lord looks upon our afflictions. He graciously and discrim-
inately metes them out and apportions them. As a refiner of silver
He watches us every moment until the purification is complete. The
furnace is to purify and refine, not to destroy and consume. He will
cause those who put their trust in Him to sing of mercies in the midst of
judgments. He is ever watching to impart, when most needed, new and
fresh blessings, strength in the hour of weakness, succor in the hour of
danger, friends in the hour of loneliness, sympathy, human and divine,
in the hour of sorrow. We are homeward bound. He that loveth us so
much as to die for us hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is
our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the City of God. No wail
of sadness. No dirge of crushed hopes and buried affection shall ever
more be heard. God bless you, my dear much-respected sister.—
Letter
37, 1893
.