My soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the
piercing winds all remind thee that He keeps His covenant with day and
night, and tend to assure thee that He will also keep that glorious covenant
which He has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to
His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world,
will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be
upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this
comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of
adversity to nip the buds of expectation: He scattereth the hoarfrost like
ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy: He casteth forth His ice
like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, He is the
great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou
canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a
thousand other ills, are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise
design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to raging diseases;
they break up the clods, and sweeten the soul. O that such good results
would always follow our winters of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let
us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth
and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him
find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments
of His promises, and go forth to labours which befit the season, for it were
ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he
shall beg in summer and have nothing.
