September 6

Seventh Friday after Trinity

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. S. Matthew 6:33.

WHEN times are hard, or we are afraid of their proving hard, we cannot, it may be, help wondering how we and our children are to get our bread and what else we want in this world. But let it not be unfaithful wondering. Has He not fed us all our lives unto this day? and why should we not trust Him for the little time which yet remains? We see by the loving miracle of the feeding of the four thousand that His blessing is all that is wanted to make a very scanty provision go a very great way. And you may thankfully trust that the longer you wait on Him with patience, the greater and surer will your relief be at the last. Observe why He had compassion on that starving multitude. Not merely because they had nothing to eat, but also because they had been with Him three days, they had persevered in waiting on Him; for all their inconvenience and hunger, therefore, He works this miracle for them, and if any of them had gone away before that time in impatience and fretfulness, that man would have lost his share in the miraculous feast.

I place myself in Jesu's Hands, And there abide for ever; No griefs, no joys, shall loose the bands, Nor our sweet union sever; In those dread days When earth decays, Who stays on Him, and Whom He stays, Shall be preserved for ever.