The Bible is studded with promises for sufferers. Passages like Isaiah 41:10 and 43:2 are stars in a constellation of promises blazing before the eyes of the suffering reader. How grand and magnificent is the arch over our heads in a starry night! But if it were always day, the stars could not be seen. The firmament of Scripture, if I may so speak, is spangled with exceeding great and precious promises, as the sky is with stars, but the value and beauty of many of them are only perceptible to us in the night of affliction.38
