2 Kings 18:5-6 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.… The late Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown of Manchester, at a public meeting, related an incident which very touchingly illustrates this hymn of Cowper's: "God moves in a mysterious way." One of the Lancashire mill-owners, who had struggled to keep his hands employed during the cotton famine, arising from the American war in 1865, at last found it impossible to proceed; and calling his workpeople together, told them he would be compelled, after the usual notice, to close his mills. The news was received with sadness and sympathy. To them it meant privation and suffering, to him it might be ruin. None cared to speak in reply; when suddenly rose the voice of song from one of the girls, who was a Sunday school teacher, and who, feeling it to be an occasion requiring Divine help and guidance, gave out the verse of Cowper's hymn: Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Parallel Verses KJV: He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. |
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