If it were God's way to send on his children only such trials as are pungent, quick, and brief, however severe, the test of patience would be incomplete; but sometimes his rod lies long, and the soul is made to cry out, "Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore!" Psa. xxxviii. 2. "How long wilt thou forget me, Lord?" Psa. xiii. 1. The very working of the remedy depends on this withholding of immediate cure. Yet the believing child learns to think and feel that God's time is best, and is assured that "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." Lam. iii. 33. And hope opens the window, and even though no dry land as yet appears, welcomes the olive branch borne by the dove of promise. Gen. viii. 10, 11. Deep may call unto deep. Psa. xlii. 7. "Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." (verse 8.) "My soul, wait thou only upon God!" Psa. lxii. 5. Thus she cheers the night-watches, and in the multitude of her thoughts within her, God's comforts delight her soul. Psa. xciv. 19. The experience of the psalmist is made for such times of languishing. Many a solitary one has renewed the strain of David's pensive chord, and sung with plaintive note, "I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee." Psa. lxxxviii. 8, 9. The night wears heavily away; the stars in their courses shine dimly; no streak of eastern dawning betokens day. Yet the hopeful sufferer can say, "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope; my soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning; I say, more than they that watch for the morning." Psa. cxxx. 5, 6. And patience, not worn out with waiting, turns on its pillow, and breathes itself to God, saying, "My soul is even as a weaned child." Psa. cxxxi. 2.