May 6

1 Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and neither of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him that endured such centradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weaned and faint in your minds.

4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, not faint when thou art rebuked of him.

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 If ye endure chastening, God deaith with

you as with sons; for what sou is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that is might be partakers of his holiness.

11 Now in chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable trust of nightlessness unto them which are exercised thereby.

12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Christians are not promised freedom from trouble. There are many troubles which God brings upon His people, or permits them to bring upon themselves, which He does not care to take away from them, and which it is not best for them to have removed. Continued troubles are not, therefore, evidences of God's displeasure. He expressly affirms that, unless you have

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such troubles, you cannot be His sons—He cannot be a loving parent to you

"Some seem to think that a man, to be a Christian, ought to be able not to suffer when suffering comes, but the ache of suffering is a part of the medicine. You might as well say that manliness requires that a man should drink bitter draughts, and call them sweet, as to say that Christianity requires that a man should bear suffering, and say that it is not suffering. It requires no such thing. It does not even require that we should illumine suffering so that for the present it shall seem joyous . . . No afflictions for the present are joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward they yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby." —H. W. Beecher.

"Perhaps there have been a dozen different things to-day which were 'not joyous, but grievous' to you. And though you feel ashamed of feeling them so much, and hardly like to own to their having been so trying, and would not think of dignifying them as 'chastening,' yet, if they come under the Lord's definition, He not only knows all about them, but they were, every one of them, chastenings from His hand; neither to be despised and called 'just nothing,' when all the while they did 'grieve' you; nor to be wearied of; because they are working out blessing to you and glory to Him. Every one of them has been an unrecognized token of His love and interest in you, for 'whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.'"—F. R. Havergal.

Closet Promise.—Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.—Heb. xii. 11.

The particular annoyance which befell you this morning, the vexatious words which met your ear and "grieved" your spirit; the disappointment which was His appointment for to-day; the slight but hindering ailment; the presence of some one who is "a grief of mind" to you—whatever this day seemeth not joyous, but grievous, is linked in "the good pleasure of His goodness" with a corresponding afterward of "peaceable fruit," the very seed from which, if you only do not choke it, this shall spring and ripen.—F. R. Havergal.