Is there nothing in dark providences, for the sake of the sight and
observation of which such a day may be rendered lovely, when it is
upon us? Is there nothing of God, of his wisdom and power and
goodness, to be seen in thunder and lightning, in hailstones, in
storms and darkness and tempests? Why then is it said, he hath his
way in the whirlwind and storm? And why have God's servants of old
made such notes, and observed from them such excellent and wonderful
things? There is that of God to be seen in such a day, which cannot
be seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in
leaving others; his making shrubs to stand, and his suffering cedars
to fall; his infatuating the counsels of men, and his making the
devil to outwit himself; his giving his presence to his people, and
his leaving his foes in the dark; his discovering the uprightness of
the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of
others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath
and of the whirlwind and storm.
These days, these days of trial, are the days that do most aptly
give an occasion to Christians to take the exactest measures and
scantlings of ourselves. We are apt to overshoot in days that are
calm, and to think ourselves far higher and more strong than we find
we are when the trying day is upon us.
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