June 17, 2012

• To take whatever thy Father's pleasure | "May adversities uninterrupted be my lot" ~ Edward Griffin

  The following are a couple bookend excerpts taken from the "Memoir of the Rev. Edward D. Griffin, D.D., Compiled Chiefly from His Own Writings" by Edward D. Griffin & William Buell Sprague (New York: Taylor & Dodd, 1839), reprinted in 1987 by Banner of Truth Trust. The first excerpt was written by Griffin at the age of 27, and the second at age 66... William B. Sprague introduces the first...

  In the year 1797 he [Edward Dorr Griffin] commenced a regular journal of his christian experience, which he continued, not however without frequent and sometimes protracted interruptions, till the close of life. Under date of July 12th of that year, he writes thus:

  This day ever memorable to my soul for the commencement of these memoirs, has been set apart as a day of secret prayer and fasting. It has pleased God, I hope, to return to me after a painful absence of several months, and after I had almost despaired of so great a blessing. May I be humbly thankful all my days that the Lord, as I hope, has come to look up and bring home his long lost wandering sheep. May the pains of absence teach me to wander no more. Alas, how have new relations, and the new cares of a family state, drawn my mind away from God. There are more dangers in every pleasing earthly scene than the inexperienced are aware of. Adversity, I find, is a much safer state than prosperity. May adversities uninterrupted be my lot, if a humble dependance on God and sweet communion with him can be enjoyed on no easier terms. Sure I am that the possession of the whole world for the same space of time could not produce so much happiness, as the absence of God for fourteen months past has produced misery. The conclusion is, that all the world cannot countervail the loss of God. (12)

  . . .

  Jan. 24 [1836]. The last week I have seen and felt the truth of that passage in Rom. v. 3, 4. "We glory in tribulation also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope." Afflictions have made me feel that God had sent them, and have made me submit in patience and in trust; and that experience has made me hope in God as a reconciled Father. The more I am afflicted, the more I cast myself upon God, and the more I submit to him and trust in him. O that heavenly lesson, to "pray without ceasing," and "in every thing" to "give thanks." How much I have lost by not learning that lesson more perfectly before. (190)

  
  

  If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee
  (Georg Neumark, 1641, tr. to English by Catherine Winkworth, 1855)

  If thou but suffer God to guide thee
  And hope in Him through all thy ways,
  He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
  And bear thee through the evil days.
  Who trust in God’s unchanging love
  Builds on the rock that naught can move.

  What can these anxious cares avail thee
  These never ceasing moans and sighs?
  What can it help if thou bewail thee
  O’er each dark moment as it flies?
  Our cross and trials do but press
  The heavier for our bitterness.

  Be patient and await His leisure
  In cheerful hope, with heart content
  To take whatever thy Father’s pleasure
  And His discerning love hath sent,
  Nor doubt our inmost want are known
  To Him who chose us for His own.

  God knows full well when time of gladness
  Shall be the needful thing for thee.
  When He has tried thy soul with sadness
  And from all guile has found thee free,
  He comes to thee all unaware
  And makes thee own His loving care.

  Nor think amid the fiery trial
  That God hath cast thee off unheard,
  That he whose hopes meet no denial
  Must surely be of God preferred.
  Time passes and much change doth bring
  And set a bound to everything.

  All are alike before the Highest:
  ’Tis easy for our God, We know,
  To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
  To make the rich man poor and low.
  True wonders still by Him are wrought
  Who setteth up and brings to naught.

  Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
  Perform thy duties faithfully,
  And trust His Word: though undeserving,
  Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
  God never yet forsook in need
  The soul that trusted Him indeed.

  Deuteronomy 8:5, 15-16
  Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that,
  as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee...

  Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness,
  wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought,
  where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
  Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not,
  that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee,
  to do thee good at thy latter end...

   Proverbs 3:11-12
  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD;
  neither be weary of his correction:
  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth;
  even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

  ---

  Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Champaigne_shepherd.jpg / CC BY-SA 3.0 - {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  Related posts:

  • Father's Day Posts
  • "A Father at the Helm"
  • "So you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name" (Isaiah 63:14b)
  • All things (even bad things) work together for good...
  • Our Twisted View of God
  • "The Often Unwanted but Necessary Gift: The Gift of the Broken Heart."
  • What is your attitude toward trials and sufferings? ~ Whitefield's Journals
  • end of the year ... in the midst of heartbreak
  • Bible Reading-Isaiah: When We Think the LORD Has Forsaken and Forgotten Us
  • Kingdom-Obsessed People don't keep looking in the rear view mirror at past hurts, # 5
  • As the Visible Disappoints
  • Lent I.–Suffering and Glory
  • The art of life is the art of avoiding pain?
  • "if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
  • "Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation" by Joseph Hart
  • Bible Reading: II Corinthians 1-Blessings out of buffetings (Alan Redpath)
  • God's sovereign grace & care in Genesis (the story of Joseph)
  • Letter 16 on assurance and fighting for joy (our prayers, His wise denials and joy)
  • Letter 24 on assurance and fighting for joy (the Father's discipline)
  • Shall we not drink the cup the Father has given us? (Letter 53 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • our Father's discipline, William Cowper on trials & sufferings (letter 61 on assurance & joy)
  • Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • Rejoicing here on the Potter's Wheel (Psalm 66) | Letter 96 on assurance & joy
  • she shall rejoice ~ our citizenship is in heaven – Rejoice! | letter 134 on assurance & joy
  • By Cherith's Brook | Letter 137 on assurance & fighting for joy
  • A Hymn for "Shelf" Times ..."Lord, We Know That Thou Art Near Us"
  • Where do you go when the world is unlovely? (Psalm 84 & the theology of Biblical counseling)
  • How long wilt thou mourn? I Samuel 16:1 - Through many disappointments & deceit, To Zion ascend, go up to the mercy seat

  • 9:29 AM
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