(Octavius Winslow, "The Divine Attributes Entwining
 Around the Tempted and Trembling Believer")

Reader, are you a child of sorrow?

Jesus is with His people at all times, in all places,
and under all circumstances. Consoling thought!

He is "God with us." He is with us . . .
  to comfort us in the hour of sorrow,
  to enlighten us in the hour of darkness,
  to guide us in the hour of doubt and perplexity,
  to deliver us in the time of conflict,
  to support us in the hour of death.

O for faith to realize this!

He was with His three faithful servants in the fiery furnace.
He was with Daniel in the lions' den.
He was with Jacob in his wrestlings at Bethel.
He was with John in his exile at Patmos.

Jesus is, at all times, in all places, and under
all circumstances--with His dear people.

Perhaps you are a son or a daughter of affliction.
You may now be passing through the furnace;
you may now be draining adversity's bitter cup;
the rod of the covenant may be heavy upon you:
  friends unkind,
  the world empty,
  every thing earthly failing,
  faith weak,
  corruptions strong.

Is it so?

Still is your omnipresent Jesus with you!

Do not be cast down! This furnace is but to consume
the tin and burnish the gold; this cup of suffering is but
to work your inward good; these painful dispensations,
by which you are learning the changeableness of every
thing earthly, are but to wean you from a poor,
unsatisfying world--and to draw you near and yet
nearer to Jesus.

Then be of good cheer, for He has promised never
to leave or forsake you. So that you may boldly say,
"The Lord is my helper!"