Turning to God in the Night


I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night.--Ps. 119:55.

There is a story told of Sir Harry Lauder, the famed entertainer of Scotland. He and a boyhood friend were spending an evening together. As they sat by the fire Sir Harry said: “We are both getting older, and I suppose our views of life are sober and settled by now. My only bairn was killed in the war. I have had my moments of bitterness and desolation. I have been at the point when a man does one of three things--he becomes desperate, or takes to drink, or turns to God. John, I have had to turn to God, the God we learnt about when we were lads together. Let’s kneel down and pray as we used to do in the Auld Kirk.”

It is something often noted that in time of great sorrow or great calamity men become more tolerant of the faith of their mothers. From the earliest time men, who in prosperity have been inclined either to indifference or to sneer, have in disaster come to realize they are dependent upon a superior power. The old-time religion that in the busy marts has been swept aside by those too practical to give thought to the future, has in the midst of trouble reimpressed itself upon helpless men; and all the theologies and creeds, all the notions advanced by so-called progressive men, are as mere baubles at such a time in comparison with the simple religion they learned at Sunday school or in a godly home.

In the day, when the sun of health and prosperity shines upon us, we are prone to forget God. But “in the night”--the night of trouble or sickness or sorrow--we remember Him and instinctively turn to Him for succor and comfort; or else, as Sir Harry Lauder said, we become desperate and surrender to despair.

Perhaps it is night now in your life. You have met with sorrow or reveres or some sore disappointment, and every thing about you is draped in curtains of darkness. It may be that you forgot God in your prosperous and happy days--but He has not forgotten you! He is “an ever present help in the time of trouble.” Take your courage in both hands and back with you to the old faith, back to the altar of prayer! Lift your heart in prayer to God. You will be surprised at the wondrous response of His love. He will not leave you to walk alone. He will come to you and be your Companion in the night.