The Choosing Place

VJ have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” — IsA. xlviii. 10

The fuknace of affliction! It is God’s meeting-place with His people. ’ “I have chosen thee,” says He, there; I will keep thee there, till the purifying process is complete; and, if need be, in a “chariot of fire” I will carry thee to heaven I’ Some Fires are for destruction, but this is for purification. He, the Bejiner is sitting by the furnace regulating the flames, tempering the heat; not the least filing of the gold but what is precious to Him I The bush is burning with fire but He is in the midst of it; — a living God in the bush — a living Saviour in the furnace!

And has not this been the method of His dealing with His faithful people in every age.

Firstj trial; then blessings. First, straits; then, deliverances: Egypt — plagues — darkness — brickkilns — the Eed Sea — forty years of desert privations — theit Canaan! First, the burning fiery furnace; iJien, the vision of “one like the Son of God 1” Or, as with Elijah on Carmel, the answer is first by /re, and then by ram. First, the fiery trial, then the gentle descent of the Spirit’s influences, coming down “like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth.”

Believer I be it yours to ask, Are my trials sanctified? Are they making me holier, purer, better; mere meek, more gentle, more heavenly-minded, more Saviour-like? Seek to glorify God in tJiefiresy Patience is a grace which the Angels can not manifest. It is a flower of earth, — it blooms not in Paradise; it requires tribulation for its exercise; it is nurtured only amid wind, and hail, and storm. By patient, unmurmuring submission, remember, you, a poor sinner, can thus magnify 3’our Grod in a way the loftiest angelic natures can not do I He is taking you to the inner chambers of His covenant faitlifalness. His design is to purge away your dross, to bring you forth from the furnace reflecting Lis own image, and fitted for glory! Those intended for great usefalness are much in the fining-pot. “Ilis children,” says Eomaine,” have found suffering times happy times. They never have such nearness to their Father, such holy freedom with Him, and such Heavenly refreshment with Him, as under the cross!

“Beloved! think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, .... hut rejoice!”