lean upon the promise of guidance

"We may lean upon the promise of guidance however unlikely present conditions may be. We have many examples in the past history of God's ways with men to teach us the Ways of Providence and how they work out in the most heart-breaking conditions, and how indeed the very conditions of present evil are working to the desired end. If we are led in days and years of disappointment, pain and sacrifice, we are in no untrodden ways. These are paths well-worn by the feet of the children of God, and if we look we shall see their footprints in the records of their lives, and even hear their voices, as when Paul breaks out, 'O wretched man that I am!' and speaks of the continual pain at his heart--pain bodily and mental. But he has another note: 'What persecution I endured! But out of them all the Lord delivered me.'"