Clearing up the Wilderness of the Soul.
Christians are very much like farms. Usually, at first, settlers clear up and cultivate about ten acres of ground just around the house. Of the whole hundred and sixty acres, only about ten or twenty acres are redeemed from the wilderness during the first year or two. After that, it is customary to cut away five acres or so a year. And gradually the farm is subdued. But it is seldom that a farm is redeemed and cultivated alike in all its parts. So God deals with us. Little by little, and through many degrees, he clears up the various parts of our nature, and subdues them from the wilderness, and brings them into a cultivated state. But there are unsubdued parts of our nature. And they are to be taught patience, meekness, humility, disinterestedness, kindness, and love. And many men that have gone through great trials, wondering what God means, have by-and-by come to a disclosure of the divine intention in that quietness and joyfulness of spirit which is wrought out in them.—Beecher.