Of the Imitation of Christ/Book III/Chapter XXIX
CHAPTER XXIX.
HOW THAT WE OUGHT TO CALL UPON GOD, AND BLESS HIM WHEN TRIBULATION IS UPON US.
LESSED be Thy Name, O Lord, for ever; for that it is Thy will that this temptation and tribulation should come upon me.
I cannot escape it, but must needs flee unto Thee, that Thou mayest help me and turn it to my good.
Lord, I am now in affliction, and am ill at ease. I am much troubled with the present suffering.
And now, O beloved Father, what shall I say? I am in a strait; save Thou me from this hour.
Yet therefore came I unto this hour that Thou mightest be glorified, when I shall have been greatly humbled, and by Thee delivered.
Let it please Thee, Lord, to deliver me; for wretched that I am, what can I do, and whither shall I go without Thee?
Grant me patience, O Lord, even now in this my strait. Help me, my God, and then I will not fear how grievously I may be afflicted.
2. And now in the midst of my troubles what shall I say?
Lord, Thy will be done! I have well deserved to be afflicted.
Surely I ought to bear it; and O that I may bear it with patience, until the tempest be past, and all be well again, or even better!
But Thine omnipotent hand is able to take even this temptation from me, that I utterly sink not under it; as oftentimes heretofore Thou hast done unto me, O my God, my Mercy?
And the more difficult it is to me, so much the more easy to Thee is this change of the right hand of the Most High.