If we thus improve the sorrowful events that await us, we shall find a happy deliverance from them all; and it is the only possible means, by which we can be happily delivered: this the text implies; “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, _that He may exalt you_;” that you may thus be rendered meet to partake of His mercy; that He may visit and comfort you in your low estate; and make it instrumental to your spiritual exaltation. If you murmur or complain, or do but naturally mourn; if you manifest only the frettings of a worldly disposition and temper, your case thereby becomes still more grievous and intolerable; the heart is vexed by its vain and rebellious strivings; “the sorrow of the world worketh misery and death.” You are thus preventing the benediction of heaven from descending upon you; you are closing up the avenues, through which the grace of God may find its way into the heart; you are neglecting that remedy, by which alone the stricken soul can be healed, by which your trouble may be converted into a blessing. Embrace the proffered means; humble yourself beneath the burden, with “a godly sorrow,” for the sin that has brought it; bend yourself beneath the storm of heaven, and the Sun of righteousness will soon shine forth, and cheer you with His brightest beam; “the God of consolation,” your Redeemer, your unchangeable friend, “the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,” will turn your darkness into light; your “weeping will endure but for a night, and joy will come in the morning.” { 168}
Or, if it be not literally so; if deliverance come not so speedily as you desire or expect, it will assuredly come in God’s “due time;” He may wait, to try the strength of your patience and your faith; may seem for a season, as though He heareth not your prayer; but rest assured, He does hear, and the answer is preparing: the wise and benevolent author of four blessings knows best when to bestow them; depend upon His mercy, and trust Him for the time: the delay will be nothing, as compared with the comfort when it arrives: the very delay will minister to the fulness of your joy: you will perceive the truth of the divine character, as drawn by the pencil of the prophet; you may apply the prophetic description to yourself; “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.” { 169}