[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-1005":3},"OCTOBER 5\r\nIt came to pass ... that the brook dried up (1 King 17:7).\r\nThe education of our faith is incomplete if we have not learned that there is a providence of loss, a ministry of failing and of\r\nfading things, a gift of emptiness. The material insecurities of\r\nlife make for its spiritual establishment The dwindling stream by  which Elijah sat and mused is a true picture of the life of each of us. \"It came to pass ... that the brook dried up\" --that is the\r\nhistory of our yesterday, and a prophecy of our morrows.\r\nIn some way or other we will have to learn the difference between\r\ntrusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may be good for a while, but the Giver is the Eternal Love.\r\nCherith was a difficult problem to Elijah until he got to\r\nZarephath, and then it was all as clear as daylight God's hard\r\nwords are never His last words. The woe and the waste and the tears of life belong to the interlude and not to the finale.\r\nHad Elijah been led straight to Zarephath he would have missed\r\nsomething that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man. He lived by faith at Cherith. And whensoever in your fife and mine\r\nsome spring of earthly and outward resource has dried up, it has been that we might learn that our hope and help are in God\r\nwho made Heaven and earth. --F. B. Meyer.\r\nPerchance thou, too, hast camped by such sweet waters, And quenched with joy thy weary, parched soul's thirst;\r\nTo find, as time goes on, thy streamlet alters From what it was at first.\r\nHearts that have cheered, or soothed, or blest, or strengthened; Loves that have lavished so unstintedly;\r\nJoys, treasured joys-have passed, as time hath lengthened, Into obscurity.\r\nIf thus, ah soul, the brook thy heart hath cherished Doth tail thee now-no more thy thirst assuage-\r\nIf its once glad refreshing streams have perished, Let HIM thy heart engage.\r\nHe will not fail, nor mock, nor disappoint thee; His consolations change not with the years;\r\nWith oil of joy He surely will anoint thee.\r\nAnd wipe away thy tears. --J. Danson Smith.",1783499793915]