January 26

How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways are past finding out. - Romans 11:33.

LET us not therefore be surprised if sometimes we should be required to exercise implicit confidence in such a Being, and be compelled to trust him even in the dark. Is it to be supposed, that everything which he is doing in the church and in the world, in families and with regard to individuals, should be level to our capacity? We are now “walking by faith, and not by sight;” and he is continually saying to us, “What I do ye know not now, but ye shall know hereafter.” A period is coming when we shall have the fullest and clearest perception of this truth, “when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.”

They admire him now, but how much more will they admire him then. For though now, and in other cases, ignorance is the cause of wonder, yet here knowledge is the cause; and the more we know the more we shall admire, because he is not only perfect but infinite, and therefore we shall always be discovering more and more, and therefore honour and admire him more. Then he will “appear in his glory.” “We shall see him then as he is.” Then his work will be finished, then every mysterious dispensation will be unveiled to our view, then we shall see clearly how all that he did here harmonized with the truth of his word, how all conduced to the welfare of his people.

Now, often he seems to forget them, to neglect them, to be adverse to them. How unlikely the events which befell Joseph appeared to fulfil the assurance given unto him, yet, by and bye, the whole was explained, and he could say, “Ye meant it for evil, but the Lord meant it for good.” So shall it be with us; we shall not only see the wisdom and the rectitude and the goodness of his dispensations to our own satisfaction, but to his eternal praise. We shall say with Moses, “God is a rock, his work is perfect. His ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he;” and, with the adoring throng, “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.”