August 31

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. - 1 Peter 4:12.

AS if the apostle had said, in an enemy’s country opposition is to be looked for; in a vale of tears, weeping is to be reckoned upon. “Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward;” and Christians are born again to trouble, for “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” To how many accidents and diseases, disappointments and mortifications, are we liable! In what part are we not vulnerable! Our possessions render us capable of losses, and our enjoyments of sorrow!

All through life our affections feed our afflictions. And we suffer much more, on the whole, from friends than from foes. Our roses grow on thorns, and our honey wears a sting! And we need not wonder at this with regard to Christians, when we consider how necessary these exercises are for their spiritual and eternal welfare. Does not the vine, if it bear fruit, require pruning, “that it may bring forth more fruit”? Does not the ground require ploughing to prepare it for the reception of the seed? And do not the materials for the temple require hewing before they are fixed in their places? As said a good man one day, “Sir, I see that God cannot trust me either with health or wealth, and therefore keeps me sick and poor.” “The prosperity of fools destroys them.” And the prosperity of good men often injures them.

There is nothing, therefore, to be viewed as peculiar in our trials; there is nothing in them but what is common to men. Our brethren before us in the world were all afflicted in the same way. Perhaps we think that some believers are exempted from afflictions, and we are ready almost to envy them, for, while some afflictions are visible enough, others are more invisible. Yes, said a good woman one” day, when a person was mentioning to her her advantages,-“Ah,” said she, “you see my sails, but you do not see my ballast.” Whatever advantages any of us have, we must have proportionable ballast. “The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger intermeddleth not with its joys.” In some way or other the language of the Scripture must be fulfilled. “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what so is he whom the Father chasteneth not?”