My dear suffering one, I can see only the Lord in all this which you are now passing through. I can see no enemy, no injustice of the creature, no triumph of evil, so brightly does the love and wisdom of God shine over it all.

God is perfecting that which concerns you; and these are His instruments of blessing to you, if accepted in His will and submitted to for His sake. He does not cause all this wrong-doing, but He overrules all, permits all, even causing the wrongdoing of others to be a ministry of good to His dear children. Has He not declared, and will He not perform? "No evil shall befall thee."-"All things work together for good." Did not Job say, (though all his affliction was directly from the hand of Satan, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away:blessed be the name of the Lord!" Never did there seem such triumph of the powers of darkness as when Christ was crucified and laid in the tomb. Thank God, things are not what they seem. It was the hour of God's victory; it was the overthrow of Satan's kingdom ; it gave to the world a risen Christ, who liveth for evermore.

Christ feared not to go by that way to accomplish the will of God. So, beloved, fear not to go by the way He is now leading you, even unto the death of self, reputation and all, that you may rise in all the life of God.

It is not for man to appoint his steps. God in His providence has brought you by this way; accept it as God's will to you; take it as the cup the Father offers you. " The cup which My Father giveth Me, shall I not drink it?"

The crucifixion of self, and the regulation of all right desires, can only be accomplished by true and perfect submission. The will is the essence of the body of self; and in order to have it brought into perfect harmony with God's will, we must submit to all the discipline of life as it comes to us in God's causative or permissive will. We, as consecrated children, must acknowledge all as from the Lord. Be patient:believe all things:wait for the end. God will let no enemy, no wrong, triumph over us. " And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." (Rom. 8:28.)

" My happy soul, since it hath learned to die,
Hath found new life in Thine infinity." M.E.C.