得勝的方法

經文: 「我們這至暫至輕的苦楚，要為我們成就極重無比永遠的榮耀。」（林後四17）

        「要為我們成就」，請注意這句話。許多人常一再問說──為甚麼人生需要流血、流淚！回答在這裡：「要為我們成就」──成就極重無比永遠的榮耀。苦難不單教導我們得勝的方法，更教導我們得勝的定律。

        古諺有云：「縱使爲十字架所舉起，你卻更靠近了上帝。」

        有時，喜樂是需要痛苦來產生的。芬妮˙克勞斯貝是一個瞎子，她從未看到過綠色的田野，傍晚的日落，和她母親眼裏的慈愛，光芒，若不是這個痛苦的事實，她絕對寫不出那首美麗的頌讚「我將和他見面」。因爲她喪失了視覺，才使她獲得了優異的靈感。

        飽受磨折的樹，才有堅實而細緻的木材。

        最使我們得安慰的，乃是：憂愁雖然耽延，到了早晨，是必須離去的。「一宿雖然有哭泣，早晨便必歡呼。」（詩卅5）──譯自夜間的歌（Songs in the Night） 

Achieving the Victory

Scripture: "For this our light and transitory burden of suffering is achieving for us a weight of glory"

        "Is achieving for us," mark. The question is repeatedly asked--Why is the life of man drenched with so much blood, and blistered with so many tears? The answer is to be found in the word "achieving"; these things are achieving for us something precious. They are teaching us not only the way to victory, but better still the laws of victory. There is a compensation in every sorrow, and the sorrow is working out the compensation.

        It is the cry of the dear old hymn:

        "Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee,

        E'en tho' it be a cross that raiseth me."

        Joy sometimes needs pain to give it birth. Fanny Crosby could never have written her beautiful hymn, "I shall see Him face to face," were it not for the fact that she had never looked upon the green fields nor the evening sunset nor the kindly twinkle in her mother's eye. It was the loss of her own vision that helped her to gain her remarkable spiritual discernment.

        It is the tree that suffers that is capable of polish. When the woodman wants some curved lines of beauty in the grain he cuts down some maple that has been gashed by the axe and twisted by the storm. In this way he secures the knots and the hardness that take the gloss.

        It is comforting to know that sorrow tarries only for the night; it takes its leave in the morning. A thunderstorm is very brief when put alongside the long summer day. "Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning." --Songs in the Night