; you need not
be impatient; as it is written--"Fret not thyself, lest thou be moved to
do evil;" and again--"He that believeth shall not make haste." For God,
in whom you trust, is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that
He should repent. Hath He promised, and shall He not do it? His word is
like the rain and dew, which fall from heaven, and return not to it again
useless, but give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So is every
man that trusteth in Him. His kingdom, says the Lord, is as if a man
should put seed into the ground, and sleep and wake, and the seed should
grow up, he knoweth not how. So the seed which we sow--the seed of
repentance, the seed of humility, the seed of sorrowful prayers for
help--it too shall take root, and grow, and bring forth fruit, we know
not how, in the good time of God, who cannot change. We may be sad; we
may be weary; our eyes may wait and watch for the Lord as the Psalmist
says; more than they that watch for the morning: but it must be as those
who watch for the morning, for the morning which must and will come, for
the sun which will surely rise, and the day which will surely dawn, and
the Saviour who will surely deliver, and the God who is merciful in
this--that He rewardeth every man according to his work.

"Oh trust in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is
plenteous redemption; and He shall deliver His people from all their
sins."

From their sins. Not merely from the punishment of their sins; not
always from the punishment of their sins in this life: but, what is
better far, from the sins themselves; from the sins which bring them into
fresh and needless troubles; and which make the old troubles, which
cannot now be escaped, intolerable.

From all their sins. Not only from the great sins, which, if persisted
in, will surely destroy both body and soul in hell: but from the little
sins which do so easily beset us; from little bad habits, tempers,
lazinesses, weaknesses, ignorances, which hamper and hinder us all every
day when we try to do our duty. From all these will the Lord deliver us,
by the blood of Christ, and by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that
we may be able at last to say to children and friends, and all whom we
love and leave behind us--

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in Him."

Yes. This at least we may do--Trust in our God, and thank God that we
may do it