[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-1023":3},"OCTOBER 23\r\nThere hath not failed one word of all his good promise (I Kings 8:56).\r\nSome day we shall understand that God has a reason in every NO\r\nwhich He speaks through the slow movement of fife. \"Somehow God makes up to us.\" How often, when His people are worrying and\r\nperplexing themselves about their prayers not being answered, is God answering them in a far richer way! Glimpse of this we see    occasionally, but the fun revelation of it remains for the future.\r\nIf God says \"Yes\" to our prayer, dear heart,\r\nAnd the sunlight is golden, the sky is blue,\r\nWhile the smooth road beckons to me and you, And the song-birds warble as on we go,\r\nPausing to gather the buds at our feet,\r\nStopping to drink of the streamlets we meet, Happy, more happy, our journey will grow,    If God says \"Yes\" to our prayer, dear heart.\r\nIf God says \"No\" to our prayer, dear heart,\r\nAnd the clouds hang heavy and dull and gray; If the rough rocks hinder and block the way,\r\nWhile the sharp winds pierce us and sting with cold;\r\nAh, dear, there is home at the journey's end, And these are the trials the Father doth send To draw us as sheep to His Heavenly fold,\r\nIf God says \"No\" to our prayer, dear heart.\r\nOh for the faith that does not make haste, but waits patiently for\r\nthe Lord, waits for the explanation that shall come in the end, at\r\nthe revelation of Jesus Christ! When did God take anything from a\r\nman, without giving him manifold more in return? Suppose that the\r\nreturn had not been made immediately manifest, what then? Is today\r\nthe limit of God's working time? Has He no provinces beyond this little world? Does the door of the grave open upon nothing but\r\ninfinite darkness and eternal silence?\r\nYet even confining the judgment within the hour of this fife, It is true that God never touches the heart with a trial without\r\nintending to bring upon it some grander gift, some tenderer\r\nbenediction. He has attained to an eminent degree of Christian grace who knows\r\n\r\nhow to wait. --Selected\r\nWhen the frosts are in the valley,\r\nAnd the mountain tops are grey,\r\nAnd the choicest buds are blighted, And the blossoms die away,\r\nA loving Father whispers,\r\n\"This cometh from my hand\"; Blessed are ye if ye trust\r\nWhere ye cannot understand.\r\nIf, after years of toiling,\r\nYour wealth should fly away\r\nAnd leave your hands all empty, And your locks are turning grey, Remember then your Father\r\nOwns all the sea and land; Blessed are ye if ye trust\r\nWhere ye cannot understand. --Selected.",1783499793968]