Hear the voice of love in the rod

(Octavius Winslow, "Morning Thoughts")

"I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right,
and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me."
Psalm 119:75.

The mark of a vigorous love to God is when the
soul justifies God in all His wise and gracious
dealings with it—when it rebels not, murmurs not,
repines not—but meekly and silently acquiesces
in the dispensation, be it ever so trying.

Divine love in the heart, deepening and expanding
towards that God from where it springs, will, in the
hour of trial, exclaim, "My God has smitten me, but
He is my God still, faithful and loving. My Father
has chastened me sorely, but He is my Father
still, tender and kind. This trying dispensation . . .
originated in love,
speaks with the voice of love,
bears with it the message of love,
and is sent to draw my heart closer and yet
closer to the God of love, from whom it came."

Dear reader, are you one of the Lord's afflicted ones?

Happy are you if this is the holy and blessed result of
His dealings with you. Happy if you hear the voice of
love in the rod, winning your lonely and sorrowful heart
to the God from whom it came.