There is no friend like Christ!
Whatever, though this year, your position may be – and I will hypothetically place it – let faith reason thus:
- I am in great adversity. Why should I resort to the help of man? He may fail me, but there is none like Christ.
- I am in profound grief and my heart is melted within me. Why should I repair to the soothing of human sympathy? It may disappoint me, but there is none like Christ.
- I am in great strait. Insurmountable difficulties and inextricable perplexities weave their network around my path, and I am at my wit’s end. Why should I betake myself to human counsel? It may mislead me, but there is none like Christ.
- My future looks dark and lowering. Disease undermines my health, my energies failing, and the duties, responsibilities, and labours for which I have taxed my utmost powers all lie untouched and neglected. Yet why should I despond? There is none like Christ.
- My temporal circumstances are narrowing. Resources fail me; poverty, with its humiliating attendants, stares me in the face. Yet why should I yield to unbelief? There is none like Christ.
- I am approaching the solemn hour of death. Heart and flesh are failing me, and the veil of eternity is slowly rising to my view. Yet why should I fear, and tremble, and shrink back? I have committed my soul to my Saviour, and there is none like Christ.
– Octavius Winslow [1866]