Friday Florilegium

There is a river, a sweet, still, flowing river, the streams whereof will make glad thy heart. And, learn but in quietness and stillness to retire to the Lord, and wait upon Him; in whom thou shall feel peace and joy, in the midst of thy trouble from the cruel and vexatious spirit of this world.

So, wait to know thy work and service to the Lord every day, in thy place and station; and the Lord make thee faithful therein, and thou wilt lack neither help, support, nor comfort.  — Isaac Penington (1616–1679), Quaker hymnist

“I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me”
(Ps. 57:2).

The beautiful old translation says, “He shall perform the cause which I have in hand.”

Does not that make it very real to us today? Just the very thing that “I have in hand”–my own particular bit of work today, this cause that I cannot manage, this thing that I undertook in miscalculation of my own powers–this is what I may ask Him to do “for me,” and rest assured that He will perform it. “The wise and their works are in the hands of God.”   — Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879), Christian poet and hymnist