"Thou hast made summer and winter." Ps 74:17

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 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.