Afflictions and Temptations.
By Francis Roberts
AFFLICTIONS hunt us again into God's park, when we have leaped out. They are God's furnace, to burn up our dross; God's files, to rub off our rust; God's soap and fuller's earth, to fetch out our stains and spots; God's fan, to blow away our chaff. The storm tries the building, and discovers which is built upon a rock, and which upon the sands. The storm tries the pilot. The touchstone tries the metal whether it be gold or copper. The furnace tries the gold whether it be pure or drossy. So afflictions and persecutions try the Christian. Paint will rub off with washing, but true beauty by washing will appear more beautiful. As the strings of an instrument make no melody till they be struck, or as the birds in spring sing most sweetly when it rains most sadly, so sufferings draw forth the activity, beauty, and fragrance of a Christian's graces. God will not spend his rods upon strangers, but upon his own children, because he loves them; and such afflictions, though bad things, are good signs. If God's people be sometimes foiled by temptations, they are hereby provoked to more watchfulness for the future in regard to themselves, and are enabled to more helpfulness toward others. As Christ said to Peter, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," and as David promised after his recovery, "Then shall I teach transgressors thy ways." When the wind blows hardest, the traveler girds his cloak to him the closest; when temptations are most violent and impetuous, we must cling fastest to Christ, lest we fall, and Christ clasp us fastest that we may not fall.—Francis Roberts, 1657.