As the face, the hidden face of God, beamed upon the Son of His love in the midst of that apparent desolation, so will it be, children of affliction and sorrow! with you. Others may see in your tears nothing but an indication of the desertion of God,--the visitations of His wrath and judgment. But believe it, these very experiences of trouble and calamity, of bereavement or death, are all meted out and apportioned for you in love--drop by drop, tear by tear. Seek to see God's hand in all that befalls you. Try, even in the most adverse providences, to rise above second causes. Be it with you as with David in his conduct towards Shimei. When the insulting Benjamite was hurling these cruel taunts against the exiled King and the sorrowing Father,--when his incensed soldiers, burning with indignation, were on the point of drawing their swords and inflicting summary vengeance on the scoffer--"_Why should this dead dog_," said Abishai, "_curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head_"--David's reply is, "Nay! I hear not that man's voice--I see not that man's face--my eye is above the human instrument, on the God who sent him--'_Let him curse on, for the Lord hath bidden him_.'" (2 Sam xvi. 11.) Trust God in the dark. Ah! it is easy for us to follow Him and to trust Him in sunshine. It is easy to follow our Leader as Israel did the pillar-cloud, when a glorious pathway was opened up for them through the tongue of the Red Sea--when they pitched under shady palms and gushing fountains, and heaven rained down bread on the hungry camp. But it is not so easy to follow when fountains fail and the pillar ceases to guide, and all outward and visible supports are withdrawn. But _then_ is the time for faith to rise to the ascendant;--when the world is loud with its atheist sneer, THEN is the time to manifest a simple, child-like trust; and, amid baffling dispensations and frowning providences, to exclaim, "_Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him_!" Yes--"_troubled_, we are NOT distressed; _perplexed_, we are NOT in _despair_; _persecuted_, we are NOT _forsaken_; _cast down_, we are NOT _destroyed_." We ARE ready, scoffing world! to answer the question, _Where is thy God?_ CHILD OF SICKNESS! bound down for years on that lonely pillow!--the night-lamp thy companion--disease wasting thy cheeks and furrowing thy brow--weary days and nights appointed thee--tell me, _Where is thy God?_ He is here, is the reply; His presence takes loneliness from my chamber and sadness from my countenance. His promises are a pillow for my aching head,--they point me onwards to that better land where "the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick!"