Charles E. Cowman delves into the profound truth of finding strength in weakness and joy in hardships for the sake of Christ. He emphasizes the transformative power of embracing our limitations, insults, challenges, and persecutions, as they lead us to a place of complete reliance on God's sufficiency. Through the examples of A. B. Simpson and George Matheson, he highlights the shift in perspective needed to see trials as opportunities for blessing and growth, ultimately leading us to a deeper understanding of the value of our struggles and the beauty that can emerge from pain.

"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). The literal translation of this verse gives a startling emphasis to it, and makes it speak for itself with a force that we have probably never realized. Here It is: "Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, in insults, in being pinched, in being chased about, in being cooped up in a corner for Christ's sake; for when I am without strength, then am I dynamite." Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him. --A. B. Simpson George Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland, who recently went to be with the Lord, said: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. "Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows." "Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through the cypress trees."