Concerning Murmuring
For a disappointment that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of heaven: it is our own fault if they prove not to our advantage.
To repine at them does not mend the matter: it is only to grumble with our Creator. But to see the hand of God in them, with a humble submission to His will, is the way to turn our water into wine and engage the greatest love and mercy on our side.
We must needs disorder ourselves if we look only at our losses. But if we consider how little we deserve what is left, our passion will cool, and our murmurs will turn into thankfulness.
If our hairs fall not to the ground, less do we or our substance without God's providence.
Nor can we fall below the arms of God, how low soever it be we fall.
For though our Savior's passion is over, His compassion is not. That never fails His humble, sincere disciples. In Him they find more than all that they lose in the world.
Is it reasonable to take it ill that anybody desires of us that which is their own? All we have is the Almighty's: and shall not God have His own when He calls for it?
Discontentedness is not only in such a case ingratitude, but injustice. For we are both unthankful for the time we had it, and not honest enough to restore it, if we could keep it.
But it is hard for us to look on things in such a glass, and at such a distance from this low world; and yet it is our duty, and would be our wisdom and our glory to do so.
(William Penn)
For a disappointment that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of heaven: it is our own fault if they prove not to our advantage.
To repine at them does not mend the matter: it is only to grumble with our Creator. But to see the hand of God in them, with a humble submission to His will, is the way to turn our water into wine and engage the greatest love and mercy on our side.
We must needs disorder ourselves if we look only at our losses. But if we consider how little we deserve what is left, our passion will cool, and our murmurs will turn into thankfulness.
If our hairs fall not to the ground, less do we or our substance without God's providence.
Nor can we fall below the arms of God, how low soever it be we fall.
For though our Savior's passion is over, His compassion is not. That never fails His humble, sincere disciples. In Him they find more than all that they lose in the world.
Is it reasonable to take it ill that anybody desires of us that which is their own? All we have is the Almighty's: and shall not God have His own when He calls for it?
Discontentedness is not only in such a case ingratitude, but injustice. For we are both unthankful for the time we had it, and not honest enough to restore it, if we could keep it.
But it is hard for us to look on things in such a glass, and at such a distance from this low world; and yet it is our duty, and would be our wisdom and our glory to do so.
(William Penn)
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