I am moved to lift up your supplication with all earnestness, for the prayer of a righteous man availeth much when it is fervent. You cry to God in the day of trouble, and that is an acceptable sacrifice, a truthful recognition that He alone is your refuge. You have not forgotten that it is written, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.” Therefore, let us together bow the knee for your husband, that the Lord who keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps, may encamp round about him with guardian angels, and give him a calm spirit amidst the roaring of machinery and the weight of anxious care.
Yet suffer me to press upon your heart that the same God who is the Husband of His people, faithful, providing, communing in love, has set His special affection upon you. He who found Israel in a desert land and betrothed her unto Himself in righteousness will not forsake you now. Is not your own soul espoused to Christ? Then what shall separate you from His love? Shall tribulation, or distress, or peril? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Your present trouble, though it loom like a mountain, is but the time of Jacob’s trouble, and he shall be saved out of it. Did not the patriarch cry, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies,” yet God delivered him from the hand of Esau and brought him safely to his father’s house? Even so, the Lord will not suffer your foot to be moved.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I charge you to examine whether the hidden root of your perturbation be not an overweening affection for the things of this world, or a leaning upon an arm of flesh. Is not the heavy equipment a mere tool, and is not your husband a soul for whom Christ died? Set your affection on things above, and remember that our safety lies not in our own wit or strength, but in Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. He is able, aye, and He is as willing as He is able. The very hairs of your head are numbered. Why, then, do thoughts arise in your heart?
I bid you make a good resolution this very hour, even that you will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and your soul shall be joyful in your God. Not when the answer comes, but now, in the thick of the storm. The Prophet could say, “I will greatly rejoice” while yet his outward circumstances were unchanged, for he was clothed with the garments of salvation and covered with the robe of righteousness. So may you, as a daughter of Zion, put on your beautiful array and sing aloud, though the fig tree doth not blossom. Your extremity is God’s opportunity; your darkness is the platform for the brightness of His delivering hand. Go to the throne of grace with a mighty confidence, mingle your prayers for safety with hearty thanksgivings for all past mercies, and leave the issue with Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face to shine upon thy household, and give thee peace.