SIGNIFICANCE OF TRIALS by F. W. Hiddleson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 29, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 35.

SIGNIFICANCE OF TRIALS.

By F. W. Hiddleson

HOWEVER it may be otherwise viewed by man, no trial or temptation is in God’s sight small or insignificant.

The trial of patience may seem to us a very little thing; but when we see that the work of patience is the work of perfection (Jas. 1: 1–3), we can understand something of the estimate God places upon it. As every stroke helps to bring from the rough stone the rounded figure existing in the mind of the sculptor, so every trial has its work to do, that “ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” When the work has all been accomplished that God in His love and favor would do for us, the “third angel” announces with a loud voice: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God.”

It is natural to applaud one who has faced some great calamity or difficulty and proved steadfast, and the world delights to herald his name; but the great army of earth’s heroes are unknown to men. They are in mansions and huts and hovels, dwelling in the valleys, on the mountain-sides—everywhere. They are of every nation, kindred, and tongue. They shall come from the east and the west, and sit down in the kingdom of God, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To them will be given “a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it;” for they are overcomers. They are passing through the fires of trial to-day, and will emerge from these unknown furnaces reflecting the image of their divine Lord and Master.

In the little worries of life that vex and bewilder the child of God, sometimes we find the hottest fires. Sometimes at the close of a day of severe toil, the worn and exhausted housewife meets, in an apparently trivial circumstance, for which her companion or thoughtless child is responsible, the greatest contest of her life. If at such a time she resists the tempter, and no word of impatience escapes her lips, or angry glance betrays the ruffled disposition, in the books of heaven there is recorded a victory greater than the taking of a city. If in some business transaction the Christian has been cruelly wronged, and he takes “joyfully the spoiling of his goods,” if, by the grace of God, he rises above it all, and gets where he can love the man that has done him the injury, he has gained a victory that causes angels to rejoice.

It is in just such fields as these that the great battles of life are fought. It is the crucifying of the flesh in these little things that insures the death of the “old man.” Alexander the Great could conquer the world; but he could not control the passions of his mind, and he died a slave.

The greatest man of earth, in God’s sight, is the overcomer. The choicest gifts of heaven are reserved for him, and when he has, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony, been declared the victor, God commands, “Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.”

The most humble soul that overcomes the least sin is more highly esteemed by the immortal throng than earth’s greatest hero who tramples down the weak to gain his laurels.

The most obscure Christian is assured that he will finally be triumphant: “for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Beyond the hills and mountains of trial, difficulty, and temptation, there stretches the great plain of peace, flooded with the amber light of God’s eternal joy, and leading the way to this we see Jesus, staff in hand, shouting to us, “In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Could the diamond speak, it would complain, no doubt, at the emery wheel, and think its lot a hard one; but without the wheel it could never adorn the brow of the monarch; so to us “no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet.” These trials are but the pledge of God that He loves us; “for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”

Dear reader, may the light of God’s love break in upon us, and in every temptation may we rejoice, knowing that if in one hand God holds a cross, in the other He has a crown. F. W. HIDDLESON.