BLESSING THROUGH TRIAL.
By Dr. Armitage
Fretting is like a tearing saw, cutting the heart. Paul speaks of “dying, and behold we live,” full of sorrows, and very poor, yet making others rich. When cast down we have a chance to learn that we are made of different stuff than to be hung or drowned under the suicide of depression; by enduring trial we find that every trouble is a new power at work to develop in us a giant manhood, the weak hands and weak knees are converted into strength, and the weak heart learns courage. Whatever comes, faith should never fail; a bill may be presented when we have no money with which to pay, but there should never come a trial that shall find us without faith. It is a great blessing to be hopeful. A physician prescribes medicine, but the patient shakes his head, refuses to take it, and by the absence of faith and hope seals his death. So our heavenly Physician wishes to bless us through some trial,—we refuse, and by unbelief thrust aside the means of blessing. In a fishing hamlet on the coast of Wales, there dwelt a poor woman whose husband was lost on the dangerous rocks. Upon the spot where he was lost she piled up stones and built a beacon to warn the sailors. The widow's beacon was the first light-house on the Welsh coast. Behind that rock she had buried her husband, but she roused from her despair to save others. Each of us should try to lift up the weak hands and heart of another, saying, “Be strong;” in so doing God will come and save us, as we try to save.—Dr. Armitage.