Trials

Comfort in Trial. — I went some time ago into the house of our brother Stephenson; a good soldier of the cross was he: he fell asleep in Jesus; and when I saw his weeping sons and daughters, I felt, “I have easy work here.” I said to them, “Why, what a mercy it is that your father is gone, for he has lingered long in pain, and you know how ready he was to enter into rest.” That was very different from what happens sometimes. Only a little while ago a sister came to me weeping as if she would break her heart. “Ah, sir,” said she, “my brother is dead, and he died without hope.” It was a sad case, but then she had a God to repair to even under that sharp trial. But, when death comes into your house, you have no God! I knelt down and prayed with those poor weeping girls this morning, and, tho their father was but just dead, I marked that the voice of prayer had evidently a soothing charm about it, and tho they wept, yet it seemed to sooth and pacify them. But some of you do not pray, and, therefore, this comfort cannot be yours.

Saved as by Fire. — A young lady, who belonged to a church in the city of New York, married a young man who was not a Christian. He was a merchant, engaged in a lucrative business, and the golden stream of wealth flowed in upon him till he had amassed a large fortune. He accordingly retired from business, and went into the country. He purchased a splendid residence; fine trees waved their luxuriant foliage around it; here was a lake filled with fish, and there a garden full of rare shrubbery and flowers. Their house was fashionably and expensively furnished; and they seemed to possess all of earth that mortal could desire. Thus prospered, and plied with an interchange of civilities among her gay and fashionable neighbors, the piety of the lady declined, and her heart became wedded to the world. And it is not to be wondered at, that her three children, as they grew up, imbibed her spirit and copied her example. ‘A severe disease, it is said, ’ demands a severe remedy;’ and that God soon applied. One morning intelligence came that her little son had fallen into the fish-lake, and was drowned. The mother’s heart was pierced with the affliction, and she wept and murmured against the providence of God. Soon afterwards, her only daughter, a blooming girl of sixteen, was taken sick of a fever and died. It seemed then as if the mother’s heart would have broken. But this new stroke of the rod of a chastening Father seemed but to increase her displeasure against his will. The only remaining child, her eldest son, who had come home from college to attend his sister’s funeral, went into the fields soon afterwards, for the purpose of hunting. In getting over a fence, he put his gun over first to assist himself in springing to the ground, when it accidentally discharged itself and killed htm! What then were that mother’s feelings? In the extravagance of her grief, she fell down, tore her hair, and raved like a maniac against the providence of God. The father, whose grief was already almost insupportable, when he looked upon the shocking spectacle, and heard her frenzied ravings, could endure his misery no longer. The iron entered into his soul and he fell a speedy victim to his accumulated afflictions. From the wife and mother, her husband and all her children were now taken away. Reason returned, and she was led to reflection. She saw her dreadful backslidings, her pride, her rebellion; and she wept with the tears of a deep repentance. Peace was restored to her soul. Then could she lift up her hands to heaven, exclaiming, ‘I thank thee, 0 Father! — the Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord,”

Crowing Great Through Trial. — When a shipwright builds a vessel, does he build it to keep it upon the stocks”? Nay, he builds it for the sea and the storm. When he was making it he thought of tempests and hurricanes: if he did not, he was a poor shipbuilder. When God made thee a believer he meant to try thee; and when he gave thee promises, and bade thee trust them, he gave such promises as are suitable for times of tempest and tossing. Dost thou think God makes shams like some that have made belts for swimming, which were good to exhibit in a shop, but of no use in the sea? We have all heard of swords which were useless in war; and even of shoes which were made to sell, but were never meant to walk in. God’s shoes are of iron and brass, and you can walk to heaven in them without their ever wearing out: and his life-belts, you may swim a thousand Atlantics upon them, and there will be no fear of your sinking. His word of promise is meant to be tried and proved. 0 man, I beseech you do not treat God’s promises as if they were curiosities for a museum, but use them as every day sources of comfort. Trust the Lord whenever your time of need comes on. Rest Through Conflict. — There will be no climbing the hill of the Lord without effort; no going to glory without the violence of faith. I believe that the ascent to heaven is still, as Bunyan described it — a staircase, every step of which will have to be fought for. He heard sweet singers on the roof of the palace, singing,

Come in! come in!

Eternal glory thou shalt win.”

Many had a mind to enter the palace and win that eternal glory; but then at the doorway stood a band of warlike men, with drawn swords, to wound and kill every man that ventured to enter. Therefore many who would have liked to have walked on the top of the palace did not care for so dangerous an enterprise; they desired the end, but not the way to it. At last there came one with a determined countenance, and he said to the writer with the inkhorn by his side, “Set down my name, sir”; and when his name was duly recorded, he drew his sword and rushed upon the armed men with all his might. It was a fierce conflict, but he meant to conquer or die, and he did conquer; he cut a lane through his enemies, and by and by he, too, was heard singing with the rest

“Come in! come in!
Eternal glory thou shalt win.”

By conflict throughout a whole life we come to our rest; and there is no other way. You cannot go round to a back-door, and enter into heaven by stealth. You must fight if you would reign.

Strong Through Struggle. — A soldier is trained by battles, and a mariner by storms. What can a man do when he has everything to his hand? Everything is possible to him, but so it is to every simpleton. He is truly a man who has nothing to assist him, and yet is aided by the opposition which confronts him. To sail against wind and tide would be more notable than to drift with gale and current. Is he not a true man who can turn to account the worst possible circumstances so as to produce the best possible results’? He has an apportunity for distinguishing himself who is placed amid temptations and perils. In your life, good works are provided for, — “God hath before prepared that we should walk in them.”