Glad Tidings at Midnight

First full moon of March 2018

"Faith helps us bear afflictions in the hope of a favorable outcome.

Faith can prophesy glad tidings at midnight

and see quietness and pleasantness out of affliction

as we lie under the burden of dark strokes of God's providence....

Divine providence has two faces:

that which is visible and seems to be against us;

aye, but there is that which is not seen, and there is love, sweetness, and kindness.

Sense judges only the outside of God's dispensations,

but faith looks within the veil.

There are secret and invisible things that God makes known to waiting souls.

True faith can pick love out of God's angry speeches

and draw gracious conclusions from the darkest events.

When there is no apparent comfort,

and there is not a drop of oil in the cruse,

nor a dust of meal in the barrel,

hope can hang upon a small thread.

Wait,

trust,

and look for the favour from God."

~Thomas Manton, By Faith (formatting mine)