GRACE and peace be multiplied to you through our Lord Jesus Christ, to support thee under thy present and grievous affliction. God promises to be a present, a very present help in time of trouble; and those that know his name will put their trust in him, for he has never failed those that seek him.
I know the heart when overwhelmed will be continually conceiving grief, which fills the soul with sorrow, and when full it is unbearable. The throne of grace is at such times our only resource; "Out of the abundance of my complaint and grief," said Hannah, "have I spoken hitherto;" and if this method be pursued the mind will get ease, otherwise it will be swallowed up with over much sorrow; and when overcharged it is often seen the spirits dry up, the heart breaks, or the tabernacle fails and faints: "My flesh and my heart faileth," says one.
But we have a God to go to; and sighing, weeping, groaning, crying, complaining, and speaking, lighten the mind, assuage the grief, ease the soul, soften the heart, and raise the spirits. "I poured out my complaint before the Lord, I shewed before him my trouble;" and sensible relief, support, condolence, and sympathy are often felt. If no word of promise is spoken, no deliverance, or no saving discovery or manifestations be enjoyed or made, yet sure I am these are the fruits and effects of communion and fellowship both with the Father and the Son. In the day of my trouble thou strengthenedst me with might in my soul, Psal. cxxxviii. 3. When heart and flesh fail, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.
The devil's principal work is to set off all our afflictions and trials in the worst light, not as humbling dispensations, or purging draughts, but as effects of divine anger; and then sets us to meditate terror, and to pore and ponder on this dark side of the question. When he has chained us down to pensive melancholy, then he draws over the old veil and blinds the mind, and hides and obscures all that is good, and every evidence. Hence reading counteracts his designs, and furnishes the mind with thought; and I know that Satan cannot endure a mind employed or fraught with heavenly things, it being unfurnished for hellish plots. Dear friend, adieu!
Your's in Christ Jesus,
W. H.
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