If the Lord is with us throughout our lives, we don’t need to fear for our confidence when we die. For when that time comes, we will find that “the Lord is there;” where the waves are most violent, and the water is coldest, we will feel the solid ground beneath us and know that it is firm: our feet will

stand on the Rock of Ages as time passes away. Beloved, from the beginning of a Christian’s life to the end, the only reason we don’t perish is because “the Lord is there.” When the God of everlasting love changes and leaves His chosen ones to perish, then the Church of God can be destroyed; but not until then, because it is written, JEHOVAH SHAMMAH, “the Lord is there.”

Let my heart be tender, even if it must be softened by pain, because I want to know how to heal my fellow’s wounds. Let my eyes be ready to shed a tear for my brother’s sorrows, even if it means I must shed thousands for my own. Being free from suffering

would mean losing the power to sympathize, and that would be worse than anything. Luther was right when he said that affliction was the best book in a Christian’s library.