Your letter comes from the valley, and it has been read with a tender and prayerful heart. You speak of deep sorrow and of faith that feels as though it would fail, and none will wonder that you feel so, for to be beset by many, to leave a place of labour after twenty years, to be pressed by want of rent and by the strife with those who should deal justly, and to be weak in body while you gather papers and seek for work, is a heavy burden indeed. Yet the valley is not a place where you must remain forever, and faith, though it be tried, may yet triumph.
You remember Job, who was tried beyond most men. Of him it is written, In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. He tore his garment, for sorrow has its proper expression, but he did not tear his faith to shreds. He was brought to the ashes, and there he saw the Lord more clearly than before, and he repented of every rebellious thought and bowed before Him who must be right. So may you be upheld, not by your own strength, but by Him who is able to keep the feet of His saints from falling.
There are two voices that speak in such an hour. One is fear, which asks, Will He plead against me with His great power. The other is faith, which answers, No, but He will put strength in me. This is the reply of faith for you now. Not only in prayer, but in duty, in the seeking of honest work, in the ordering of documents, in the telling of the truth though it bring retaliation, God will put strength in you. You have done well to speak truly concerning your rent, for truth is comely before God and before men, and though an audit and the anger of a landlord have followed, the Lord loves integrity and will not forsake the honest soul.
You say you are weak and lost and exhausted. Hear then what faith is. Faith is to the Christian all the spiritual senses. By faith we see Him who is invisible, by faith we feel His sustaining hand. The light and love of God come into our consciousness by faith, as through gates of agate. And faith in its essence is a dropping down into the arms of Christ, a laying hold with the hand of confidence upon the rope which Christ Himself holds fast upon the shore. Your faith may be little, and little faith is still faith, and therefore precious. It is true faith if it begins and ends with Jesus, it is the gift of God though it be but as a grain of mustard seed. He that has little faith shall be tenderly handled by his Lord, for Christ does not despise the smoking flax. O you of little faith, why did you doubt. The two are inconsistent, for you have a strong Christ and an unwavering promise. Look to Him, not to the littleness of your faith, and He will increase it.
Despair must be denounced, for it is a high insult to God and it degrades a man below the very brute, which will struggle to live even when wounded. No man has a right to despair while God is the sinners hope and while Christ stands ready to receive all who come unto Him. To say there is no hope is to crown the adversary in Christs stead, and to make your own sigh come true by your own making it so. You are not lost while God lives, and He does live and reign. The Christian walk is faith and the Christian life is faith, and if your faith can stand the test, even though it be shaken as with a puff of wind, it will be found to be that true faith which is worthy of God.
Therefore, take above all the shield of faith, for it quenches the fiery darts of the wicked, whether they come from Satan, or from unkind men, or from your own weary heart. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Faith and repentance go together as twins, born at the same time. Come then with repentance for all sin and with simple trust in Christ alone for salvation, for there is no other name by which we must be saved, and cast your whole weight upon Him.
We will pray for you, that the Lord will give you strength in body, that He will guide the agency that reviews your papers, that He will provide honest labour for your hands, and that He will keep your dwelling and supply your need according to His wisdom. May He who numbers the hairs of your head and who has seen every act of mobbing and every injustice, plead your cause and cause your faith to triumph, so that you may yet say with Job, Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Look to Jesus, hold fast to Him, and you shall find that He will put strength in you for this day and for all that is to come.