I Know Where They Are Not

If any of you are so wise that you know all the objections to Christianity, all the hard places which faith must encounter, all the dark sayings and perplexing mysteries of the gospel, remember that it is nothing to your credit. A wrecker who lives from the goods of foundered vessels and shipwrecked crews, knows where all the dangerous rocks are along the coast, and he is always hovering about them. But the shipmaster knows more about the channel than about the reefs. A calm, self-possessed captain of a vessel was asked: "Captain, I suppose you know where every rock and shoal is along this whole coast, do you not?" "I know where they are not," was his reply, which is the more important thing. Admirable answer. If your faith is fixed in God, and your heart is wedded to his service, you will know where the dangers and difficulties and mysteries and contradictions are not. Riding peacefully upon the great deeps of his love, your greatest joy will be that you no longer live by doubts, but by affirmations.--Anon