William Bacon Stevens, “The Rainbow in the Cloud” 1856
. . . chastenings are the sure evidence of God’s fatherly love.
The furnace of affliction is but the purifying agent to purge away our dross–that the great Refiner may see His own image reflected in purified souls.
In furnishing the strongest and most Scriptural consolation which can be offered to the sorrowful and stricken-hearted, we believe . . .
that all our springs of comfort are in Jesus Christ,
that they are applied to the soul by the Holy Spirit,
that they are to be sought for by the prayer of faith, and
that they result from the overflowing grace of our Heavenly Father.
We are unwilling to lead the reader to any of the broken cisterns of earth for consolation, when the wellspring of Divine comfort, which can alone staunch his bleeding heart is pouring forth its free and life-giving waters!
It is the lot of all, to be visited with sorrow. There is a time to mourn marked out in every man’s life; and when that time comes, and the fainting spirit turns away from the miserable comforters of earth, may all who consult these pages find in God a refuge from every storm, and a very present help in every time of trouble. And may they be enabled so to look at their sorrows with the clear-sighted eye of faith, that they shall discern a rainbow in every cloud of affliction; and covenant mercy in every shower of grief.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Sermons of William Bacon Stevens
You Can Trust Him 