William Bridge on Meditaion

There are two things that make meditation hard. The one is because men are not used thereunto.. . . and another is, because they do not love God enough. Everything is hard at the first: writing is hard at the first, painting hard at the first. . . . meditation will be hard at the first. There is nothing not hard to those that are unwilling. There is nothing hard to those that love, love makes all things easy. Is it a hard thing for a lover to think or meditate on the person loved? - William Bridge

It is but a cloud, it will pass over

We continue our look at Luther's prayer, meditation and trial today with William Bridge on affliction:

If the darkness which a man be under be such, that there are some openings of light withal, then it is the darkness of a cloud, and not of the night.... Now thus it is always with the people of God. They never are in any affliction, temptation, or desertion, but before their great deliverance comes, they have some special providence, some reviving in the midst of their trouble, some interim of light, some openings of the cloud; and therefore, in the midst of all, they may say, Surely this my darkness is not the darkness of the night, but of a cloud. I say, there is no discouragement befalls the saints, but the matter thereof is a cloud, and they may say, It is but a cloud, it will pass over. - WILLIAM BRIDGE