It is good to praise the LORD and make music to
Your Name, O Most High, proclaiming Your love in the
Morning and Your faithfulness at night, to the music
of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp"
Psalm 92:1-3
No matter what the source of the evil, if you are in God and surrounded by Him as by an atmosphere, all evil has to pass through Him before it comes to you. Therefore you can thank and praise God for everything that comes, not for the sin of it, but for what God will bring out of it and through it. May God make our lives thanksgiving and perpetual praise, then He will make everything a blessing. We once saw a man draw some black dots. We looked and could make nothing of them but an irregular assemblage of black dots. Then he drew a few lines, put in a few rests, then a clef at the beginning, and we saw these black dots were musical notes. On sounding them we were singing:
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost"
"Would we know that the major chords were sweet,
If there were no minor key?
Would the painter's work be fair to our eyes,
Without shade on land or sea?"
"Would we know the meaning of happiness,
Would we feel that the day was bright,
If we'd never known what it was to grieve,
Nor gazed on the dark of night?"
(An extract from - Streams In The Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowan)