[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0422":3},"APRIL 22\r\nHe knoweth the way that I take (Job 23:10).\r\nBeliever! What a glorious assurance! This way of thine-this, it may\r\nbe, a crooked, mysterious, tangled way-this way of trial and tears.\r\n\"He knoweth it\". The furnace seven times heated-He lighted it There\r\nis an Almighty Guide knowing and directing our footsteps, whether it be to the bitter Marah pool, or to the joy and refreshment of\r\nElim.\r\nThat way, dark to the Egyptians, has its pillar of cloud and fire\r\nfor His own Israel. The furnace is hot; but not only can we trust  the hand that kindles it but we have the assurance that the fires are lighted not to consume, but to refine; and that when the\r\nrefining process is completed (no sooner-no later) He brings His people forth as gold.\r\nWhen they think Him least near, He is often nearest \"When my spirit\r\n\r\nwas overwhelmed, then thou knewst my path.\"\r\nDo we know of ONE brighter than the brightest radiance of the\r\nvisible sun, visiting our chamber with the first waking beam of the\r\nmorning; an eye of infinite tenderness and compassion following us throughout the day, knowing the way that we take?\r\nThe world, in Its cold vocabulary in the hour of adversity, speaks\r\nof \"Providence \"-\"the will of Providence \"-\"the strokes of Providence.\" PROVIDENCE! What is that?\r\nWhy dethrone a living, directing God from the sovereignty of His\r\nown earth? Why substitute an inanimate, death-like abstraction, in place of an acting, controlling, personal Jehovah?\r\nHow it would take the sting from many a goading trial, to see what\r\nJob saw (in his hour of aggravated woe, when every earthly hope lay\r\nprostrate at his fee)-no hand but the Divine. He saw that hand\r\nbehind the gleaming swords of the Sabeans-he saw it behind the  lightning flash-he saw it giving wings to the careening tempest-he saw it in the awful silence of his rifled home.\r\n\"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!\"\r\nThus, seeing God in everything, his faith reached its climax when   this once powerful prince of the desert seated on his bed of ashes, could say, \"Though he slay me, yet will I trust him\" --Macduff.",1783499792052]