iv. 17, 18). But
such a promise as that only mocks us if we do not believe. "In
all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His
presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed
them; and He bare them, and He carried them all the days of old"
(Isaiah lxiii. 9). And He is just the same to-day. To some He
says: "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isaiah
xlviii 10), and nestling down into His will and "believing," they
"abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost."
He turns our eyes back upon Job in his loss and pain; upon Joseph
sold into Egyptian slavery; Daniel in the lions' den; the three
Hebrews in the burning fiery furnace, and Paul in prison and
shipwreck and manifold perils; and, showing us their steadfastness
and their final triumph, He prompts us to hope in God.
When weakness of body overtakes us, He encourages us with such
assurances as these: "My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is
the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalm lxxiii.
26), and the words of Paul: "Though our outward man perish, yet
the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. iv. 16).
When old age comes creeping on apace, He has promised to meet the
need that our hope fail not. Listen to David! He prays: "Cast me
not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength
faileth.... Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake
me not; until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation,
and Thy power to every one that is to come" (Psalm lxxi.
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