The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

WALKING ON THE SEA 217
you may observe with all diligence the laws of
success ; and
yet be baffled at every point, and fail
in every effort. Such a lot is very hard to bear.
The heart is then enshrouded in an impenetrable
cloud of darkness.
(2) Divine visitations.
This frail body of ours is subject to a thousand
ills. Suffering in its various forms abounds on
every hand. And when one is laid for weeks on
a bed of sickness, longing the night for the morning
and the morning for the night, and in the extremity
of his anguish ready to welcome death itself, then
indeed does he experience the mysterious bitterness
of existence. Moreover, this is emphatically a world
of bereavements. You know not the moment the
friend you hold dearest may be taken from you.
Who is there that has not been in the house of
mourning Nay, who is there that has not stood
by the grave, to see it close upon the remains of
a beloved being, whom he would have given the
whole world to retain
Often and often does death
cross our path, leaving each time a dark track behind
it, which makes life a very different thing from what
it
was before.
(3) Persecutions for righteousness* sake.
I
am not going to speak of the apostolic age, when
Jewish prejudice was exceeding mad against the
Christian faith. I am not going to speak of the
days of Romish ascendancy, when Protestants were
consigned to the flames. Thanks be to God, those
times are past. We enjoy an amount of religious
liberty that has no precedent in the history of the
world. Still we speak of persecutions ; and when