Now take this great subject as a help to your trust. See how it exhibits Him in His own time, and His own way, working out His own predicted purpose. It was utterly impossible for any man by private interpretation to calculate the course that things would take. But He foresaw all, and more than two thousand years ago He actually foretold what He would do. And now, after all these centuries have passed, after great empires have risen and fallen according to His prophecy, after every species of effort has been made in vain to silence God’s Word, after every available means have been employed,—political influence, religious influence, priestly assumption, and fiery persecution—to stamp out God’s truth, we see the Lord Jesus with a mighty hand fulfilling His word, carrying out His purpose, and preparing the way for victory. And is that the time to distrust Him? If we are so fainthearted now what should we have been before the Reformation? What should we have been after John Huss was burned, and when the Lord’s own people were like the seven thousand hidden ones in the days of Elijah? If we cannot trust Him now, that we have experienced that ‘His counsels of old are faithfulness and truth,’ what should we have done if we had lived before any prophecies had been fulfilled; if we had had to trust to His bare naked word before it was confirmed by history? But now that we have this great confirmation, and now that we see the putting forth of His hand, this is not the time for faintheartedness or misgiving; this is not the time to distrust Him whom God has made the ‘head over all things to His Church.’ It is true that ‘God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform;’ but it is certain that He is riding on the storm and will perform His own wonders, so that we may add, as in the next verse of the same hymn, ‘Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The cloud ye so much dread Is big with mercies, and will break In blessings on your head.’