Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith.

Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture heroically on Jesus Christ's statements when the facts of your common-sense life shout - "It's a lie?"

On the mount it is easy to say - 'Oh, yes, I believe God can do it'; but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration belief.

Every time my programme of belief is clear to my own mind, I come across something that contradicts it. Let me say I believe God will supply all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something lower.

Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict. What is your faith up against just now? The test will either prove that your faith is right, or it will kill it. "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me."

The final thing is confidence in Jesus. Believe steadfastly on Him and all you come up against will develop your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith, and the last great test is death. May God keep us in fighting trim! Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams that He will not stand by us.

Mary and Martha could not understand what their Lord was doing. Each of them had said to Him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (vv. 21, 32). And behind their words we seem to read their true thoughts: “Lord , we do not understand why You waited so long to come or how You could allow the man You love so much to die. We do not understand how You could allow such sorrow and suffering to devastate our lives, when Your presence might have stopped it all. Why didn’t You come? Now it’s too late, because Lazarus has been dead four days!” But Jesus simply had one great truth in answer to all of this. He said, in essence, “You may not understand, but I am telling you that if you believe , you will see.”

Abraham could not understand why God would ask him to sacrifice his son, but he trusted Him. Then he saw the Lord’ s glory when the son he loved was restored to him. Moses could not understand why God would require him to stay forty years in the wilderness, but he also trusted Him. Then he saw when God called him to lead Israel from Egyptian bondage.

Joseph could not understand his brothers’ cruelty toward him, the false testimony of a treacherous woman, or the long years of unjust imprisonment, but he trusted God and finally he saw His glory in it all. And Joseph’ s father , Jacob, could not understand how God’ s strange providence could allow Joseph to be taken from him. Yet later he saw the Lord’s glory when he looked into the face of his son, who had become the governor for a great king and the person used to preserve his own life and the lives of an entire nation.

Perhaps there is also something in your life causing you to question God. Do you find yourself saying, “I do not understand why God allowed my loved one to be taken. I do not understand why affliction has been permitted to strike me. I do not understand why the Lord has led me down these twisting paths. I do not understand why my own plans, which seemed so good, have been so disappointing. I do not understand why the blessings I so desperately need are so long in coming.”

Dear friend, you do not have to understand all God’ s ways of dealing with you. He does not expect you to understand them. You do not expect your children to understand everything you do—you simply want them to trust you. And someday you too will see the glory of God in the things you do not understand. J. H. M.

If we could push ajar the gates of life, And stand within, and all God’ s working see, We might interpr et all this doubt and strife, And for each mystery could find a key . But not today . Then be content, dear heart; God’ s plans, like lilies pur e and white, unfold. We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart— Time will someday r eveal the blooms of gold. And if, thr ough patient toil, we r each the land Wher e tired feet, with sandals loosed, may r est, When we shall clearly know and understand, I think that we will say , “God knew best.”

Summoned to the couch of a dying little girl, the mighty Master had time to tarry by the way until a poor helpless woman was healed by a touch of His garment. Meanwhile that little life had ebbed away , and human unbelief hastened to turn back the visit which was now too late. “Trouble not the Master; she is dead.” It was then that His strong and mighty love rose to its glorious height of power and victory . “Be not afraid,” is His calm reply; “Only believe and she shall be made whole.”

“Too late,” says Martha. “Four days buried.” But He only answers, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40).

“Go to Him at midnight!” Let us go when all other doors are barred and even the heavens seem brass, for the gates of prayer are open evermore; and it is only when the sun is gone down and our pillow is but a stone of the wilderness that we behold the ladder that reaches unto heaven with our Infinite God above it, and the angels of His providence ascending and descending for our help and deliverance. He is a friend in extremity . He is able for the hardest occasions. He is seated on His throne for the very purpose of giving help in time of need.

No matter if the case is wholly hopeless, and your situation one where you have nothing, and the hour is dark as midnight, “Go to Him. ” Go to Him at midnigh t. He loves the hour of extremity . It is His chosen time of Almighty interposition.

“There’ s a budding morrow in midnight,” so fold your griefs away , and wait for the bud to open, a fragrant and fair new day. Wait for the bud to open, cease to worry and grope, “there’ s a budding morrow in midnight,” its name is The Dawn of Hope. A NEW TRAIL

My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.—I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.—This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.—Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.—All bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words, which proceeded out of his mouth.

Thou art worthy . . . for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and peopIe, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Sit still, my daughter.

Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted.—Be still, and know that I am God.—Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?—The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

Mary . . . sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.—Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.—In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.—Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established.

He that believeth shall not make haste.