You feel the heavy weight of a world that presses in upon your child, a world that snarls like a beast at the heels of the young pilgrim. You see the long walk from the parked car to the halls of study, and your heart trembles at the loneliness of the path. Is this not precisely what it means to be called out? The effectual calling, the true call of God, always has a going out and a going out alone. Abraham went out, not knowing whither he went, and the divine call to your daughter’s heart to study and to serve, this too forbids trust in our own doings and conducts us to Christ alone. That lonely walk is a consecrated path where the Shepherd leads His own sheep by name, and a stranger they will not follow, for they know His voice.
Consider the very trouble you feel for her. Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your heart? It would be a great pity to be troubled for nothing. The Lord Jesus, who bids the troubled come unto Him, does not stand aloof from this very anxiety. He permitted the cabin boy to be thrown overboard by the rough captain only that the captain might plunge in to rescue him, and in doing so, discover the boy was his own long-lost son. So our great Captain hurls our cares upon the waves that He might dive in after them and reveal His heart to us. He wants you for your own sake, to do you good, not to get anything good out of you.
Cast this care upon Him, for He cares for you. You cannot stand as priest over your daughter’s safety; you must let Him, the great High Priest, carry this burden. If the king commands his servant to mind the king’s business and promises to mind the servant’s, shall not the King of Heaven do more? Put all into the Mediator’s hands, fit hands both towards God and towards man, for He alone knows both to perfection. The very fact that she is studying to help those with afflictions of the mind and soul is itself a call from Heaven, a heavenly calling. The Master is preparing her, even through this present danger, to be a cup of consolation to others. The sickbed, the long fearful walk, the daily dread, these are the tools of the Holy Spirit sanctifying her for this work. Be thankful for trouble, for it works an eternal benefit for the saints.
Do not look so much at the gathering storm as at the One who commands it. Jesus could truly say, "Ye shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." So it is for your daughter. Christ does not say, "I shall not be alone," in some distant future, but "I am not alone" in this present moment of need. The Lord of Heaven looks down upon His creature, that is mercy; but for Him to walk beside her to that very car and that very building, to stoop so low as to look up to one of His own creatures, that becomes mercy indeed. He will come and tarry with her, and consecrate her for His own for ever.