June 5
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeWednesday of the Second Week after Easter
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Hebrews 12:6.
GREAT must be the blessing of evil, since it is so widely spread in the works of a good God. Deep must the blessing of evil be, since God vouchsafed it so largely to those whom He made most like to His own Son in the flesh. Very necessary must evil be to us, since none, fence themselves as they may from it, can escape it. None do, in any great measure, escape it, save those who, resisting God, are at length abandoned by God, and, forsaking Him and forsaken by Him, are left unvisited by Him in His mercy until they have treasured up His wrath to the uttermost. So strongly is this stamped upon our fallen nature, that even the heathen felt that unmingled prosperity was the herald of woe to come. Absence of chastisement or trial, the fulness of the world's prosperity, are the worst outward tokens of man's salvation. Blow upon blow, and wound upon wound, are signs of His mercy.
O Thou Whose sacred Feet have trod The thorny path of woe, Forbid that I should slight the rod, Or faint beneath the blow.
My spirit to its chastening stroke I meekly would resign, Nor murmur at the heaviest yoke That tells me I am Thine.
Give me the spirit of Thy trust, To suffer as a son, To say when lying in the dust, My Father's will be done!