April 8

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.—Hebrews 12:11.

In what way Christ would have himself preached to you, in that hold ye him, in that write ye him in your heart. It is a wall against all assaults, and all artifices of the enemy. Fear not: he does not even tempt unless by permission: it is plain that he can do nothing unless he has been permitted, or sent. He is sent, as an evil angel, by a power which holds him under control; permitted when he makes some request: and this, brethren, does not occur but that the righteous may be proved, the unrighteous punished. What then dost thou fear? Walk in the Lord thy God; be assured: what he will not have thee suffer, thou sufferest not; what he may permit thee to suffer, is the rod of One that corrects, not the punishment of One that condemns. We are in training for an eternal inheritance, and do we spurn the rod? My brethren, if a boy should refuse a slapping or a whipping from his father, what a proud child would he be called, what a hapless subject, how ungrateful for paternal discipline! And to what end does a human father train a human son? That he may be able to avoid losing the temporal goods which he has acquired for him, which he has collected for him, which he would not have him lose, which himself who leaves can not keep for ever. He is not teaching a son with whom he is to possess, but who is to possess after him. My brethren, if in teaching a son, a father teaches one who is to succeed him, and teaches withal that he too is destined to pass through all these things in the same way, by which he, who is admonishing him, is destined to pass through the same; how will ye that he train us, our Father, whom we are not as successors to come after, but as inmates to come nigh unto, and abide with him for ever, in an heritage which fadeth not, neither dieth, and where hail-storms are unknown? Himself is both the inheritance and the Father. Shall he be our possession, and is it not our duty to endure training?

Then let us suffer the teaching of the Father. Let us not, when our head aches, run to charmers, to fortune-tellers, and remedies of vanity. My brethren, shall I not mourn over you? Every day I find these things: and what shall I do? Not yet do I succeed in persuading Christians that their hope is to be placed in Christ? Lo, suppose one dies to whom one of these remedies has been applied, with what assurance hath his spirit gone forth to God? He hath lost the sign of Christ, he hath received the sign of the devil. Or will any one say, I have not lost Christ's sign? Then thou hast had the sign of Christ and the sign of the devil both together. Christ will have no partnership; he will be the sole proprietor of what he hath bought. He bought at so great a price, that he may be the sole proprietor. Thou makest the devil, to whom by sin thou hast sold thyself, Christ's partner. Woe to the double-hearted; to those who in their hearts give part to God, part to the devil. God being angry that the devil has part there, departs, and the devil will possess the whole. It is not in vain, therefore, that the apostle saith: Neither give place to the devil. Let us learn to know the Lamb, then, know the price with which we have been bought. "For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."

"Saviour, where'er thy steps I see, Dauntless, untired I follow thee; O let thy hand support me still, And lead me to thy holy hill!

"If rough and thorny be the way, My strength proportion to my day; Till toil, and grief, and pain shall cease, Where all is calm, and joy, and peace."