THE USES OF CHASTISEMENT.
THEY who have not submitted fully to the Saviour the conduct of their life, have yet to learn the meaning of their sorrows. They naturally blame themselves or others for the ills that vex their lives. So grief brings them only bitterness. It hardens, instead of softening the soil of the heart. But when one commits the keeping of all to Christ, he knows that Satan cannot pluck him out of the Master's hand; and, of course, he cannot touch him without permission while he is in that hand. Jesus desires so earnestly to save his child, He will never loose his hold of him; so as long as he is loyal to his purpose he is perfectly safe. All things work together for his good. The shortest way out of trouble is to learn the lesson it is meant to teach. Luther used to say, when the Lord had fresh work for him, a strong trial was usually sent before-hand to prepare him for the new duty by humiliation. Before promotion comes discipline. Before honor is humility. We must learn to be abased before it is safe for us to abound. We must be faithful over the few things before we can be trusted to reign over the many. He who would rule must first serve. I was in the finishing-room of a watch factory not long ago. The last thing that was done to the watches before sending them out for work was to test their reliability. They were baked in an oven, then shut up in an ice-box. They were jolted and jerked. They had to stand on their heads and lie on their backs. If, after all this treatment, it was found they did not vary in accuracy of time a fraction of a second, they were declared fit to be trusted. On railway trains, in darkest nights, thousands of lives might depend upon their faithfulness. It would not be strange if we have faults that make it quite impracticable for God to use us for strong work. We covet places of responsibility, yet ten chances to one, when the strain came on us, we would give way and shatter the faith of hundreds. Now when God takes us in hand He is trying to show us our weak points, that we may let Him strengthen them, and thus fit us for wide trusts. No doubt the Holy Spirit whispers to us often of our need. God would teach the lessons without the pain. But we are so busy with our own schemes we will not heed His monitions. We are like naughty children so carried away by their own mischief they have no ear for their mother's voice, till the hand of her who loves them best touches them with the rod. In their pain and anger they lose sight of her love, but the sooner they acknowledge that she is right, and they must be wrong, and think how they can improve their behavior, the sooner they forget the trouble in her loving arms. Pain's furnace blast within me quivers,
God's breath upon the flame doth blow,
And all my heart in anguish shivers,
And trembles at the fiery glow.
And yet I whisper, "As God will,"
And in His hottest fire, hold still.
He comes and lays my heart, all heated,
On his hard anvil, minded so
Into his own fair shape to beat it,
With His great hammer, blow on blow.
And yet I whisper, "As God will,"
And under heaviest blows, hold still. —Jennie F. Willing, in Christian at Work.