April 9

Glorify ye the Lord in the fires.—Isaiah 24:15

WHEN the fires of affliction are kindled about me, do I glorify God in the flames? Does my patience under tribulation, beam forth to the glory of God? Do I glorify him by a spirit of thankfulness for the comforts he has left me, and by submission as to those he has seen fit to take away? If in the furnace, like the three of old, is the Son of God with me in the flames?

Afflictions are blessings to us when we can bless God for afflictions. God had one Son without sin, but he never had any without sorrow.—DYER.

If thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee, and lead thee to the world where there is an end of suffering for ever.—THOMAS A KEMPIS.

"Why should I murmur?" said Henry Martyn in his last sickness: "weakness, peril and pain are but ministering angels to conduct me to glory."

Hold fast Christ, and take his cross cheerfully; for though he and his cross are not separable in this life, they part at the door in heaven.—RUTHERFORD.

Would not thy sorest tribulations prove Their own best recompense, if, through the years Of never-ending bliss, one voice were heard To say that these, thy sorrows sanctified, Had proved the means of leading thee to heaven! —MACDUFF.