April 15

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. — Rom 8:28

As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. — Gen 50:20

Ill that He blesses is our good,
And unblest good is ill;
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet Will.
—F. W. FABER.

To those who know themselves, all things work together for good, and all things seem to be, as they are to them, good. The goods which God gives seem “very good,” and God Himself in them, because they know that they deserve them not. The evils which God allows and overrules seem also “very good,” because they see in them His loving hand, put forth to heal them of what shuts out God from the soul. They love God intensely, in that He is so good to them in each, and every, the least good, because it is more than they deserve: how much more in the greatest! They love God for every, and each, the very greatest of what seem evils, knowing them to be, from His love, real goods. For He by whom “all the hairs of our head are numbered,” and who “knoweth whereof we are made,” directs everything which befalls us in life, in perfect wisdom and love, to the well-being of our souls. —E. B. PUSEY.