Page:The Faith as Unfolded by Many Prophets.djvu/142

 God had given me a will as submissive as my faith is strong.

Eber looked with compassion on the old man, as he said, From Aza have many learned to resign themselves to the inflictions of God; but it is not to be wished that the submission of the heart should be such as the lips have now spoken. If thou hadst fields, wouldst thou not till them without waiting for a promise that the harvest should repay thy toil?

Aza was silent.

The husbandman knows not, continued Eber, whether the corn he sows shall be ripened by a genial season, or whether it shall be washed away by floods, or blighted by unwholesome dews. Yet he toils and watches, in the hope that his labor will be fruitful. If his toil should be frustrated, he is not therefore the less ready to submit to the will of God; but if he should be idle when others are sowing, he will surely be in poverty while others are reaping, and all men will declare the fault to be his own.

Yet, said Aza, is the end determined before the seed is cast into the ground, though the issue is hidden.

True, replied Eber: but though the issue be hidden, thus much it is given to man to know,