七月十一日
等你們暫受苦難之後，必要親自成全你們，堅固你們，賜力量給你們。（彼前5：10）
你看到蔚藍的天空，它的顔色是多艶麗，多鮮明。它太美麗了，但霎時沒有了！不，你看，它又出現了。輕雲似絮遮沒太空，長天的美色頓時消失。這幷不是固定了的。那怎麽能夠呢？雨後的斜陽雖可帶來美好的景色，但怎能長久呢？基督徒品格上的美德切莫像彩虹一樣只有一忽兒的美景，而應固定、竪立、長久。信徒啊！要使你每一種美點都能長久。不要把你的品格寫在沙土上，而要刻在磐石上！願你的信心不要出于無根無據的幻想，而要用堅固的材料來建造，免得經不起那能燒去虛假之人的草木禾秸的可怕的烈火。
願你在愛中有根有基，願你的信更深，你的愛更純，人的望更真。願你整個的生命都堅固牢靠，是地獄的火和地上的風所不能動搖摧毀的。要留意怎樣才能在“已有的真道上堅固”呢？使徒告訴我們說：受苦難是一種方法——“等你們暫受苦難之後”。若暴風不吹打我們，我們就不能盼望我們的根能扎得更深。大樹根上的疤瘤，錯綜交纏的叉根，都證明它們已經飽經風暴的擊打，也證明它們曾爭先恐後地奮力扎根。基督徒要強壯起來也得這樣，須經人生的苦難和風暴才能把根扎好。所以當我們遇見苦難的風暴時不要畏縮不前，要坦然，要安靜，要知道神必藉它們粗暴的手段賜福于你。
神要在我們的身上滿足他的心願，所以他要我們在熬煉中增長壯大起來。
July 11
“After that ye have suffered awhile, make you
perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” — 1 Peter 5:10
You have seen the arch
of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its colours, and rare its hues.
It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours
give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no longer brilliant with the tints
of heaven. It is not established. How can it be? A glorious show made up of
transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The graces of
the Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its transitory beauty,
but, on the contrary, must be stablished, settled, abiding. Seek, O believer,
that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not
be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be
no “baseless fabric of a vision,” but may it be builded of material
able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble
of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions
be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so
settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of
earth shall never be able to remove you. But notice how this blessing of being
“stablished in the faith” is gained. The apostle’s words point us to
suffering as the means employed–“After that ye have suffered
awhile.” It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough
winds pass over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and those
strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many storms that have swept
over it, and they are also indicators of the depth into which the roots have
forced their way. So the Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the
trials and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial,
but take comfort, believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling
this benediction to you.
