“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
“Cry for grace from God to be able to see God’s hand in every trial, and then for grace to submit at once to it. Not only to submit, but to acquiesce, and to rejoice in it. I think there is generally an end to troubles when we get to that.” (Charles Spurgeon)
“If anyone could tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing.” (William Law)
“There will come one day a personal and direct touch from God when every tear and perplexity, every oppression and distress, every suffering and pain, and wrong and injustice will have a complete and ample and overwhelming explanation.” (Oswald Chambers)
Everything furthers the Christian if he knows how to use it. But if you thank God for everything you must see God in everything. Not in its genesis, but in its exodus. It may have begun with the devil, but by the time it gets to you and through you it has a divine destiny running through it. An old lady was praying for bread. Some boys, hearing her, decided to play a trick on her. They threw some loaves down the chimney. The old lady began to shout. The boys said, “But we threw it down, not God.” She replied, “The devil may have fetched it, but God sent it.” (E. Stanley Jones)
“To penetrate deeper in the experience of Jesus Christ, it is required that you begin to abandon your whole existence, giving it up to God. Let us take the daily occurrences of life as an illustration. You must utterly believe that the circumstances of your life, that is, every minute of your life, as well as the whole course of your life–anything, yes, everything that happens–have all come to you by His will and by His permission. You must utterly believe that everything that has happened to you is from God and is exactly what you need.”
“Such an outlook towards your circumstances and such a look of faith towards your Lord will make you content with everything. Once you believe this, you will then begin to take everything that comes into your life as being from the hand of God, not from the hand of man.” (Jeanne Guyon)
The devout Father John Tauler relates this personal experience: For years he had prayed God to send him someone who would teach him the real spiritual life. One day, at prayer, he heard a voice saying: “Go to such and such a church and you will have the answer to your prayers.” He went and at the door of the church he found a beggar, barefoot and in rags. He greeted him saying: “Good day, my friend.” “Thank you, sir, for your kind wishes, but I do not recall ever having had a ‘bad’ day.” “Then God has certainly given you a very happy life.” “That is very true, sir. I have never been unhappy. In saying this I am not making any rash statement either. This is the reason: When I have nothing to eat, I give thanks to God; when it rains or snows, I bless God’s providence; when someone insults me, drives me away, or otherwise mistreats me, I give glory to God. I said I’ve never had an unhappy day, and it’s the truth, because I am accustomed to will unreservedly what God wills. Whatever happens to me, sweet or bitter, I gladly receive from his hands as what is best for me. Hence my unvarying happiness.” “Where did you find God?” “I found him where I left creatures.” “Who are you anyway?” “I am a king.” “And where is your kingdom?” “In my soul, where everything is in good order; where the passions obey reason, and reason obeys God.” “How have you come to such a state of perfection?” “By silence. I practice silence towards men, while I cultivate the habit of speaking with God. Conversing with God is the way I found and maintain my peace of soul.” (St. Alphonsus de Ligouri)
Is it not a thing worth having, to have this settled conviction of your hearts, that Christ is moving through all the impulses of your life, and that nothing falls out without the intervention of His presence and the power of His will working through it? Do you not think that such belief would gird you up for difficulty, and would lift you buoyantly over trials and depressions, and would see you upon a vantage ground high above all the petty annoyances of life?
Tell me, is there any other place a Christian can plant his foot and say, “Now I am on a rock and I care not what comes!” (Alexander Maclaren)
“Hammer this truth out on the anvil of experience–this truth that the loving thoughts of God direct and perfect all that concerns us; it will bear to be beaten out to the uttermost. The pledged word of God to man is no puffball to break at a touch and scatter into dust. It is iron. It is gold, that most malleable of all metals. It is more golden than gold. It abides imperishable forever. If we wait till we have clear enough vision to see the expected end before we stay our mind upon Him who is our Strength, we shall miss an opportunity that will never come again: we shall never know the blessing of the unoffended (Mt. 11:6). Now is the time to say, ‘My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise,’ even though as we say the words there is no sense of exultation. ‘It is possible to gather gold, where it may be had, with moonlight,’ by which I understand something less helpful than daylight would be in the search and the finding of gold. By moonlight, then, let us gather our gold.” (Amy Carmichael)
Mr. John Philpot having lain for some time in the bishop of London’s coal-house, the bishop sent for him, and amongst other questions, asked him why they were so merry in prison? singing (as the prophet speaks) Exultantes in rebus pessimis, rejoicing in your naughtiness, whereas you should rather lament and be sorry. Mr. Philpot answered, “My lord, the mirth which we make is but in singing certain Psalms, as we are commanded by Paul, to rejoice in the Lord, singing together hymns and Psalms, for we are in a dark, comfortless place, and therefore, we thus solace ourselves. I trust, therefore, your lordship will not be angry, seeing the apostle saith, ‘If any be of an upright heart, let him sing Psalms;’ and we, to declare that we are of an upright mind to God, though we are in misery, yet refresh ourselves with such singing.” After some other discourse, saith he, “I was carried back to my lord’s coal-house, where I, with my six fellow prisoners, do rouze together in the straw, as cheerfully (I thank God) as others do in their beds of down.”
And in a letter to a friend, he thus writes: “Commend me to Mr. Elsing and his wife, and thank them for providing me some ease in my prison; and tell them though my lord’s coal-house be very dark, yet it is more to be desired of the faithful than the Queen’s palace. The world wonders how we can be so merry under such extreme miseries; but our God is omnipotent, who turns misery into felicity. Believe me, there is no such joy in the world, as the people of God have under the cross of Christ: I speak by experience, and therefore believe me, and fear nothing that the world can do unto you, for when they imprison our bodies, they set our souls at liberty to converse with God; when they cast us down, they lift us up; when they kill us, then do they send us to everlasting life. What greater glory can there be than to be made conformable to our Head, Christ? And this is done by affliction. O good God, what am I, upon whom thou shouldst bestow so great a mercy? This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the way, though it be narrow, which is full of the peace of God, and leadeth to eternal bliss. Oh, how my heart leapeth for joy that I am so near the apprehension thereof! God forgive me my unthankfulness, and unworthiness of so great glory. I have so much joy, that though I be in a place of darkness and mourning, yet I cannot lament; but both night and day am so full of joy as I never was so merry before; the Lord’s name be praised for ever. Our enemies do fret, fume, and gnash their teeth at it. O pray constantly that this joy may never be taken from us; for it passeth all the delights in this world. This is the peace of God that passeth all understanding. This peace, the more his chosen be afflicted, the more they feel it, and therefore cannot faint neither for fire nor water.” (Samuel Clarke)
That is a blessed cross that the end of it is to draw us nearer to God. “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but I have learned to keep thy statutes;” Wherefore afflictions are called visitations. O! but that is a kindly word, and crosses are so when they are blessed of the Lord. They are visitations. And such crosses and visitations leave drinksilver behind them where they come. When the Lord does this to make them deny themselves, and become humble in their own eyes, O but that is sweet.” (Samuel Rutherford)
Satan’s drift in tempting is to turmoil, dishearten, and perplex with fears, and drive into despair; and if thou take heart to rest quietly upon God’s grace, and fly unto his name, thou shalt put him to flight, thou hast already got the day. Wait but awhile, and these dark mists and terrible storms shall be dispersed. By these temptations the Lord hath taught thee to see by weakness, and the malice of Satan; to deny thine own wisdom and prize his favour, lightly to esteem all that is here below, and highly to value mercy reaching to the pardon of sin, and heavenly communion and fellowship with God. And if this bitter potion hath wrought so kindly for thy spiritual good, why shouldst thou be dismayed? Trust in the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thee. (John Ball)
Ye are no loser, having Himself; and I persuade myself, if you could prize Christ, nothing could be bitter to you. Grace, grace be with you. (Samuel Rutherford)
“We are constantly ensnared by looking at secondary causes–we do not realize God in everything. Were we more alive to the fact that there is not an event which happens to us, from morning to night, in which the voice of our Father may not be heard, His hand seen, with what a blessed atmosphere would it surround us! Man and circumstances would then be received as so many agents and instruments in our Father’s hand; so many ingredients in His cup for us. Thus would our minds be solemnized, our spirits calmed, our hearts subdued.” (C.A. Coates)
“Every time you meet a difficulty, every time you find yourself in an impossible situation, ask yourself this question: Am I going to starve here, or am I going to eat the food that is set before me? If you are relying on the Lord for victory and let His overcoming life be manifested in you, you will find fresh nourishment and increased vitality in accepting as ‘bread’ those Anakim that are contesting your progress. Do bear in mind that people who do not eat well cannot grow into maturity. Many people take the Word of God as their meat and the doing of His will as their meat, but they reject the Anakim as unpalatable food. The more we eat such food, the stronger we will be. Caleb is a grand illustration of this. Because he accepted the Anakim as ‘bread’ he was still full of vigor at the age of eighty-five. So many Anakim had been assimilated by him over the years that he had developed a constitution which showed no trace of age.”
“So it is in the spiritual realm. Some brothers and sisters have met few difficulties, but they are spiritually feeble. The explanation is that they have not consumed enough Anakim. On the other hand, there are those who have met and overcome difficulty after difficulty, temptation after temptation; and they are full of vitality. The reason is, they have fed well on Anakim. Every difficulty and every temptation Satan puts in our way is food for us. This is a divinely appointed means of spiritual progress. The sight of any great trouble strikes terror into the heart of those who do not believe God, but those who trust Him say: ‘Praise God, here is some more food!’ All our trials, without exception, are bread for us, and as we accept one trial after the other, we are more and more richly nourished and the result is a continuous increase of strength.” (Watchman Nee)
“Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. Trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes more room for consolation. God comes into our heart–He finds it full–He begins to break our comforts and to make it empty; then there is more room for grace. The humbler a man lies, the more comfort he will always have, because he will be more fitted to receive it. Another reason why we are often most happy in our troubles, is this–then we have the closest dealings with God. When the barn is full, man can live without God: when the purse is bursting with gold, we try to do without so much prayer. But once take our gourds away, and we want our God; once cleanse the idols out of the house, then we are compelled to honour Jehovah. ‘Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.’ There is no cry so good as that which comes from the bottom of the mountains; no prayer half so hearty as that which comes up from the depths of the soul, through deep trials and afflictions. Hence they bring us to God, and we are happier; for nearness to God is happiness. Come, troubled believer, fret not over your heavy troubles, for they are the heralds of weighty mercies.” (C.H. Spurgeon)
I do not know how the loving Father will bring out light at last, but He knows and He will do it. (David Livingstone)
“So many Christians are disturbed, so many are restless, because they are not living in the knowledge that they are under the care of the Lord; and then there is no power to walk. Why have you so little power in walk or service? It is because you are not yet clear that the Lord is caring for you, that He is in all watchfulness over you, that He has let down the strong pinions of His protecting care till they sweep the ground around you, and if you are wise, you will creep up close under His wings, into the very down.” (J.B. Stoney)
“In the highest class of God’s school of suffering we learn, not resignation nor patience, but rejoicing in tribulation.” (J. H. Vincent)
“The roads are rugged, the precipices steep; there may be feelings of dizziness on the heights, gusts of wind, fierce eagles, peals of thunder, nights of awful gloom. Fear them not! There are also the joys of sunlight, flowers such as are not in the plain, the purest of air, restful nooks, and the stars smile thence like the eyes of God.” (Pere Didon)
“It is a tremendous moment when first one is called upon to join the great army of those who suffer. That vast world of love and pain opens suddenly to admit us one by one within its fortress. We are afraid to enter into the land, yet you will, I know, feel how high is the call. It is as a trumpet speaking to us, that cries aloud, ‘It is your turn–endure.’ Play your part. As they endured before you, so now, close up the ranks–be patient and strong as they were. Since Christ, this world of pain is no accident untoward or sinister, but a lawful department of life, with experiences, interests, adventures, hopes, delights, secrets of its own. These are all thrown open to us as we pass within the gates–things that we could never learn or know or see, so long as we were well. God help you to walk through this world now opened to you, as through a kingdom, royal, and wide and glorious.” (Henry Scott Holland)
“Your faith has met unusual trials, and you ask for thoughts which may strengthen you. Your experience of life and of God’s goodness is a far better teacher than any suggestions of a fellow being. The thought on which I delight to dwell, as I advance in life, is that God is within me–always present to my soul, to teach, to rebuke, to aid, to bless–that He truly desires my salvation from all inward evils, that He is ever ready to give His Spirit, that there is no part of my lot which may not carry me forward to perfection, and that outward things are of little or no moment, provided this great work of God goes on within. The body and the world vanish more and more, and the soul, the immortal principle, made to bear God’s image, to partake of his truth, goodness, purity, and happiness, comes out of my consciousness more and more distinctly; and in feeling God’s intimate presence with this, to enlighten, quicken, and save, I find strength, and hope, and peace.” (William Channing)
“Therefore, in the very bitterness of tribulation we ought to recognize the kindness and mercy of our Father, since even then he ceases not to further our salvation. For he afflicts, not that he may ruin or destroy but rather that he may deliver us from the condemnation of the world.” (John Calvin)
“I grant, indeed, we cannot give thanks for affliction as affliction, but either as it is the means of some good to us, or as the gracious hand of God is some way remarkable therein toward us. In this respect there is no condition on this side of hell but we have reason to praise God in it, though it be the greatest of calamities. Hence it was that David, when he speaks of his affliction, adds presently, ‘Thou art good, and doest good’ (Ps. 119:68)” (John Willison)
“Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, a duty: believe me, that angel’s hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing Presence. Our joys too: be not content with them as joys. They too conceal diviner gifts. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage, then, to claim it, that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims wending through unknown country on our way home.” (Fra Angelico)
“Let me beg of thee, that thou wilt not be offended either with God, or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not with God, for he doth nothing without a cause, nor with men, for they are the hand of God: and whether willingly or not; they are the servants of God to thee for good (Jer. 24:5). Take therefore what comes to thee from God by them, thankfully. If the messenger that brings it is glad that it is in his power to do thee hurt, and to afflict thee; if he skips for joy at thy calamity: be sorry for him; pity him, and pray to thy Father for him, he understandeth not the judgment of thy God, he prognosticates before thee that he is working out his own damnation by doing of thee good. Lay the woeful state of such to heart, and render him that which is good for his evil; and love for his hatred to thee; then shalt thou shew that thou art acted by a spirit of holiness, and art like thy heavenly Father. And be it so, that thy pity and prayers can do such a one no good, yet they must light somewhere, or return again, as ships come laden from the Indies, full of blessings into thine own bosom.” (John Bunyan)
“God seems to go quite across and work in a contrary way: when he intends the greatest mercies to his people he first usually brings them into a very low conditions. If it is a bodily mercy, an outward mercy that he intends to bestow, he brings them physically low, and outwardly low; if it is a mercy in their possessions that he intends to bestow, he brings them low in that and then raises them; and in their reputations, he brings them low there, and then raises them; and in their spirits God ordinarily brings their spirits low and then raises their spirits. Usually the people of God, before the greatest comforts, have the greatest afflictions and sorrows.” (Jeremiah Burroughs)
“The finest china in the world is burned at least three times, some of it more than three times. Dresden china is always burned three times. Why does it go through that intense fire? Once ought to be enough; twice ought to be enough. No, three times are necessary to burn that china so that the gold and the crimson are brought out more beautiful and then fastened there to stay.” “We are fashioned after the same principle in human life. Our trials are burned into us once, twice, thrice; and by God’s grace these beautiful colors are there and they are there to stay forever.” (Cortland Myers )
Earth’s fairest flowers grow not on sunny plain,
But where some vast upheaval rent in twain
The smiling land . . . .
After the whirlwinds devastating blast,
After the molten fire and ashen pall,
God’s still small voice breathes healing over all.
From riven rocks and fern-clad chasms deep,
Flow living waters as from hearts that weep,
There in the afterglow soft dews distill
And angels tend God’s plants when night falls still,
And the Beloved passing by that way
Will gather lilies at the break of day. (J.H.D)
“Afflictions are blessings to us when we can bless God for afflictions. Suffering has kept many from sinning. God had one Son without sin; but He never had any without sorrow. Fiery trials make golden Christians; sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.” (Dyer)
“Oh, what owe I to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus, who hath now let me see how good the wheat of Christ is that goeth through His mill and His oven, to be made bread for His own table! Grace tried is better than grace; and it is more than grace; it is glory in its infancy. I now see that Godliness is more than the outside, and this world’s passments and their bushings. Who knoweth the truth of grace without a trial? Oh, how little getteth Christ of us, but that which He winneth (to speak so) with much toil and pains! And how soon would faith freeze without a cross! How many silent crosses have been laid upon my back, that had never a tongue to speak the sweetness of Christ, as this hath! When Christ blesseth His own crosses with a tongue, they breathe out Christ’s love, wisdom, kindness, and care for us. Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul? I know that He is no idle husbandman; He purposeth a crop. Oh that this white withered lea-ground were made fertile to bear a crop for Him, by whom it is so painfully dressed, and that this fallow ground were broken up! I desire now to make no more pleas with Christ. Verily He hath not put me to a loss by what I suffer; He oweth me nothing; for in my bonds how sweet and comforting have the thoughts of Him been to me, wherein I find a sufficient recompense of reward! How blind are my adversaries who sent me to a banqueting house, to a house of wine, to the lovely feasts of my lovely Lord Jesus, and not to a prison, or place of exile!” (Samuel Rutherford)
“Suppose my train was delayed for hours, did I fret and fume? suppose another train ran into it, and I am injured! Or, suppose I have had a poor week in business, or that lightning struck my shop and set it on fire, or that burglars broke in and rifled it – then what: do I see the hand of God in these things? Take the case of Job. When loss after loss came his way, what did he do? Bemoan his ‘bad luck’? Curse the robbers? Murmur against God? No; he bowed before him in worship. Ah, dear reader, there is no real rest for your poor heart until you learn to see the hand of God in everything. But for that, faith must be in constant exercise. And what is faith? A blind credulity? A fatalistic acquiescence? No, far from it. Faith is a resting on the sure Word of the living God, and therefore says, ‘We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose’ (Rom. 8:28); and therefore faith will give thanks always for all things. Operative faith will ‘Rejoice in the Lord always‘ (Php. 4:4).” (A. W. Pink)
“Happy is he who has learned to look beyond the actions of men to the power that controls them all, and to receive all–favor or persecution, aid or hindrance, from the Lord. That soul has acquired the secret of perfect peace amid the confusion and turmoil of the world, as well as in the presence of Satan’s power.” (Edward Dennett)
“In order to be humble, ye must suffer all scoffing patiently and calmly, as far as ye can, both in love and scorn, with others, or in opposition, equally or unequally. Ye must endure contempt, disparagement, and such-like, in gain or in loss, outwardly or inwardly, as it may happen, and whoever may cause it. Though, at times, it may seem to you, as far as ye can judge, that it is neither the best nor the worst course, or that according to your ideas it may hinder your virtue or salvation, yet suffer simply and willingly as well as you can. Trust in God; and, though ye do not understand why all things have happened, yet bear all patiently; and then ye will bring forth the fruits of humility. Your own good opinion of self and your wisdom will wither away, and all things will happen to you for the best, if ye will only endure. And, though at times, it may seem to you that ye will be injured thereby, both in the temporal and spiritual things that ye have undertaken yourselves, yet by this humble and enduring resignation ye will be a hundred times further advanced in God in real and true virtue.” (John Tauler)
“Just as God leads I am content:
I rest me calmly in His hands;
That which He has decreed and sent–
That which His will for me commands–
I would that He should all fulfil;
That I should do His gracious will In living or in dying.” (Lampertus Gedicke)
“Divine Providence means the arrangement of all our life, not only of its bright side, but also of its dark. It may mean sickness as well as health; death as well as life; loss as well as gain; peril as well as safety; shipwreck at sea, accident by land; sickness in our homes.” (Anthony W. Thorold)
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; hence I infer that losses, disappointments, ill tongues, loss of friends, houses or country, are God’s workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you. When the Lord’s blessed will bloweth cross your desires, it is best, in humility, to strike sail to Him, and to be willing to be led any way our Lord pleaseth.” (Samuel Rutherford)
“Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness and desolation with both hands as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying and suffering Savior. Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other way. Reject every other thought about it, then every kind of trial and distress will be the blessed day of thy prosperity.” (William Law)
“Faith must pass through the furnace–it will not do to say that we trust in the Lord, we must prove that we do, and that when everything is against us.” (C.H. Mackintosh)
How beautiful our lives may be; how bright
In privilege; how fruitful of delight!
And lo! all round us His bright servants stand;
Events, His duteous ministers and wise,
With frowning brows, perhaps, for their disguise,
But with such wells of love in their deep eyes,
And such strong rescue hidden in their hands! (Henry Septimus Sutton)
What within me and without
Hourly on my spirit weighs,
Burdening heart and soul with doubt,
Darkening all my weary days;
In it I behold Thy will, God, who givest rest and peace;
And my heart is calm and still,
Waiting till Thou send release. (A. H. Francke)
“Whatever thy grief or trouble be, take every drop in thy cup from the hand of Almighty God. He with whom “the hairs of thy head are all numbered,” knoweth every throb of thy brow, each hardly drawn breath, each shoot of pain, each beating of the fevered pulse, each sinking of the aching heart. Receive, then, what are trials to thee, not in the main only, but one by one, from His all-loving hands; thank His love for each; unite each with the sufferings of thy Redeemer; pray that He will thereby hallow them to thee. Thou wilt not know now what He thereby will work in thee; yet, day by day, shalt thou receive the impress of the likeness of the ever-blessed Son, and in thee, too, while thou knowest it not, God shall be glorified.” (Edward B. Pusey)
“As thou learnest this lesson, to carry all thy sorrows to God, and lie at thy Saviour’s feet, and spread thy grief before Him, thou wilt find a calm come over thee, thou knowest not whence; thou wilt see through the clouds a bright opening, small perhaps and quickly closed, but telling of eternal rest, and everlasting day, and of the depth of the Love of God. Thy heart will still rise and sink, but it will rise and sink, not restlessly, nor waywardly, not in violent gusts of passion; but resting in stillness on the bosom of the ocean of the Love of God. Then shalt thou learn, not to endure only patiently, but, in everything against thy will, humbly and quickly to see and to love the loving Will of God. Thy faith and thy love and thy hope will grow, the more thou seest the work of God with thee; thou wilt joy in thy sorrow, and thy sorrow will be turned into joy.” (Edward B. Pusey)
“Every trouble is an opportunity to win the grace of strength. Whatever else trouble is in the world for, it is here for this good purpose: to develop strength. For a trouble is a moral and spiritual task. It is something which is hard to do. And it is in the spiritual world as in the physical, strength is increased by encounter with the difficult. A world without any trouble in it would be, to people of our kind, a place of spiritual enervation and moral laziness. Fortunately, every day is crowded with care. Every day to every one of us brings its questions, its worries, and its tasks, brings its sufficiency of trouble. Thus we get our daily spiritual exercise. Every day we are blessed with new opportunities for the development of strength of soul.” (George Hodges)
“There is a peace that cometh after sorrow,
Of hope surrendered, not of hope fulfilled;
A peace that looketh not upon tomorrow,
But calmly on a tempest that it stilled.”
“A peace that lives not now in joy’s excesses,
Nor in the happy life of love secure;
But in the unerring strength the heart possesses,
Of conflicts won while learning to endure.”
“A peace there is, in sacrifice secluded,
A life subdued, from will and passion free;
‘Tis not the peace that over Eden brooded,
But that which triumphed in Gethsemane.” (Streams in the Desert, by Lettie Cowman)
“Whoever drinks of the water that I give him, shall never thirst.”
“To know that shall means shall, that never means never and that thirst means any unsatisfied need, may be one of the greatest revelations God ever made to our souls.” (Hudson Taylor)