Sovereign Grace Church

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him

(ECCLESIASTES 7:14)

My young friend, if your worldly prospects should be blasted—you are called “in the day of adversity” to “consider,” Ecclesiastes 7:14; to “consider your ways,” Haggai 1:5. Fret not, murmur not at the chastisement; but be calm to inquire wherefore it is that God contends with you? Examine yourself, and expect to find the cause there. Is there not a cause? Has not your heart gone after idols? Have you not sought to find your rest on earth? Have you not sunk into neglect of known duty, or want of spirituality in its discharge? May it not even be, that you have been altogether living without God in the world? How needful, then, and how gracious are these afflictive dispensations, to remind you that earth affords you no satisfying, no abiding portion, and that you need an interest in God? Hearken to “the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him,” Hebrews 12:5; but fall in with the design of the stroke; flee to Him who smites; lay hold on His strength, and be at peace with Him. That will be a blessed affliction, the fruit of which is to take away sin, by leading you to the Saviour.

Written ‘by a mother’

^{Excerpt from “The Young Wife, or Hints To Married Daughters By A Mother”}