'Great is our Lord, and His understanding is infinite. Who covereth the
heavens with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth, and maketh the
grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth snow like wool; He
scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes; He casteth forth His ice like
morsels. Who can stand before his cold?' Here is the patience and the
faith of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and
the faith of Jesus Christ.
And, then, when through rain or frost or fire, when out of any terror by
night or arrow that flieth by day, any calamity comes on the man who is
thus pointed and practised in his patience, he is able with Job to say,
'This is the Lord. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God and
not also receive evil?' By far the best thing I have ever read on this
subject, and I have read it a thousand times since I first read it as a
student, is Dr. Thomas Goodwin's _Patience and its Perfect Work_. That
noble treatise had its origin in the great fire of London in 1666. The
learned President of Magdalen College lost the half of his library, five
hundred pounds worth of the best books, in that terrible fire.
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