Trialling His Love in 2026

’Tis my happiness below,
Not to live without the cross,
But the Saviour’s power to know,
Sanctifying every loss.

Trials must and will befall;
But with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all,
This is happiness to me.

Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to His feet,
Lay me low and keep me there.

Did I meet no trials here,
No chastisement by the way,
Might I not with reason fear
I should be a castaway?

Bastards may escape the rod,
Sunk in earthly, vain delight;
But the true-born child of God
Must not, would not, if he might.

-William Cowper, Gadsby's Hymns, No 282