Andrew Bonar : Letters: Rev. Dr. John J. Bonar his brother, Greenock (1) - Andrew Bonar

GLASGOW, 28th Oct. 1864.
MY DEAR JOHN,
—I cannot tell how helpful you have been to me during this season. No one could have given more sympathy, no one could have done more to cheer than you have done. I look upon it all as an intimation sent from the Elder Brother, through you, of the sympathy of His heart, for He must have put it into yours. You will surely share in the blessing which I believe this bitter trial has been sent to usher in. But still it is sore. On Wednesday I took up Deut. 1: 19-26 and was led to notice that, while at verses 6-7, the Lord took no notice of the intervening wilderness between Horeb and Canaan, Moses speaks of it, and speaks of it as ‘a great and terrible wilderness.’ This is our estimate of things, we feel them to the quick. But God’s estimate is different, for He sees the results and He sees the comparative littleness of all this, exactly as Paul is led to say, ‘our light affliction,’ and also, ‘but for a moment.’ Oh, if we saw the kingdom close at hand in all its glorious wealth of all things, we too would ever say ‘light affliction,’ that is the forerunner of such a ‘weight of glory.’ And, if we could look at time also in God’s way, a few years would seem but for a moment. . . .—Your affectionate brother,
ANDREW A. BONAR.