SECURE OF FINDING GOD IN ALL

I must quote you Madame Guyon’s lines which I have written in my Bible opposite the close of Ecclesiastes and the opening of Canticles. I have them just there because I think they contain the lesson of those two books. Ecclesiastes gives us the utter insufficiency of anything earthly, even the best, to satisfy the heart; and Canticles gives us the all-sufficiency of the Beloved One to satisfy in spite of all circumstances. All scenes alike engaging prove To souls impressed with sacred love; Where’er they dwell, they dwell in Thee, In Heaven, in earth, or on the sea. To me remains nor place nor time, My country is in every clime; I can be calm and free from care On any shore, since God is there. While place we seek, or place we shun The soul finds happiness in none; But with my God to guide the way ’Tis equal joy to go or stay. Could I be cast where thou wert not, That were indeed a dreadful lot; But regions none remote I call, Secure of finding God in all! I do not like to think of you as needing to have “things” pleasant around you when you have God within you. Surely He is enough to content any soul. If He is not enough here, how will it be in the future life when we have only Him Himself? Or at least where His presence is the highest joy? If I were you I would ask for and trust for a contented spirit before anything else. Heb. 13:5 tells us why we should be content. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” That “for” explains the whole matter. And I think perhaps this is the lesson the Lord has meant to teach you by the unsatisfactoriness of your circumstances during these past years. I want you to be able to say, even in the midst of the most untoward things, that you are content with the things you have. —To a Friend, January 17, 1883, Providence, R.I.