Christian Trials by Frank Hope

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 38.

Christian Trials.

By Frank Hope

The subject of trials in the Christian life is very forcibly brought to view in the Scriptures. If a vine is to illustrate Christian life, it has to be pruned; if a stone, it has to undergo a process of chipping and polishing before it becomes a “lively” stone; if silver, it has to be refined and the dross taken out. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and he tells us that “the servant is not greater than his lord; if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;” indeed “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” so “think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.”

There is a sacredness in the sorrow and affliction that every Christian has to some extent to experience; the Lord “scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” The Lord sends trials to separate the wheat from the chaff. Without trials some of the fruits of the Spirit could not be brought forth; patience is a beautiful flower growing out of tribulation; for “tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.” Trials help us to realize the privileges we enjoy; if there were no clouds we could not so well appreciate the sunshine. Those who have never had any suffering cannot so well sympathize with those who are in trouble. Trials break the hard carnal heart and leave the nature more subdued and tender; it is those flowers that are most crushed that emit the sweetest fragrance.

We know that the remnant church has to pass through great tribulation. There is a time of great trouble looked forward to, but while we gaze so fearfully on the intricate mass of shoals in the distance, we must be careful not to run on some sunken reef directly under our bow. “It is the little foxes that spoil the vines!” and it is the little trials that are most likely to trip us. The cross has to be taken up daily. Our life to-day is the inevitable product of every moment gone before. Some one has said, “To-day is the child of yesterday and the mother of to-morrow.” What we will be to-morrow is the outcome of what we are to-day. If we overcome all trials to-day, by the grace of God, we shall do so to-morrow; and when the greater trials come, the Lord will be our strength, and his grace will be sufficient.

Paul suffered the keenest and most bitter trials, yet he said he gloried in them. And why? “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying.” Then why should we not say,—

“Blest be the sorrow, kind the storm, Which drives us nearer home” ?

FRANK HOPE.