“That God may be all in all,” I must not only allow Him to take His place, but secondly, I must accept His will in everything.  I must accept His will in every providence.  Whether it be a Judas that betrays, or whether it be a Pilate in his indifference, who gives me up to the enemy; whatever the trouble, or temptation, or vexation, or worry, that comes, I must see God in it, and accept it as God’s will to me.  Trouble of any sort that comes to me is God’s will for me.  It is not God’s will that men should do the wrong, but it is God’s will that they should be in circumstances of trial.  There is never a trial that comes to us but it is God’s will for us, and if we learn to see God in it, then we bid it welcome.

Suppose away in South Africa there is a woman whose husband has gone on a long journey into the interior.  He is to be away for months from all posts.  The wife is anxious to receive news.  In weeks she has had no letter or tidings from him.  One day, as she stands in her door, there comes a great, savage Kafir.  He is frightful in appearance, and carries his spears and shield.  The woman is alarmed and rushes into the house and closes the door.  He comes and knocks at the door, and she is in terror.  She sends her servant, who comes back and says, “The man says he must see you.”  She goes, all affrighted.  He takes out an old newspaper.  He has come a month’s journey on foot from her husband, and inside the dirty newspaper is a letter from her husband, telling her of his welfare.  How that wife delights in that letter!  She forgets the face that has terrified her.  And now as weeks are passing away again, how she begins to long for that ugly Kafir messenger!  After long waiting he comes again, and this time she rushes out to meet him because he is the messenger that comes from her beloved husband, and she knows that with all his repelling exterior, he is the bearer of a message of love.  Beloved, have you learned to look at tribulation, and vexation, and disappointment, as the dark, savage-looking messenger with a spear in his hand, that comes straight from Jesus?  Have you learned to say, “There is never a trouble, and never a hurt by which my heart is touched or even pierced, but it comes from Jesus, and brings a message of love?” Will you not learn to say from to-day, “Welcome every trial, for it comes from God?” If you want God to be all in all, you must see and meet God in every providence.  Oh, learn to accept God’s will in everything!  Come learn to say of every trial, without exception, “It is my Father who sent it.  I accept it as His messenger,” and nothing in earth or hell can separate you from God.