十一月十二日
叫你们的信心既被试验……（彼前1：7）
没有经过试验的信心或许是真的信心，但那是微小的信心；若不经过试验，它总是不会长进的。信心经受诸般的磨炼便越发增长：风暴是它的教练官，闪电是它的启发者。当海洋风平浪静时，你无论怎样扬帆，也不会抵达海港：因爲海洋沉睡，船上的龙骨也安眠起来。让风怒吼，任浪汹涌，船虽或会触礁，会被水冲击，它的桅杆容或因帆面全张、压力过重而折断，但那时才能急速地驶往所愿去的海口。冰河岸边生长著的蓝色花朵最爲可爱；北极上空的星星最爲光耀；沙漠中的泉水最爲甘美；在患难之中的生活与得胜的信心也是最爲宝贵。信心经过试验便得了经验。若你不被迫涉水，你就不相信自己是软弱的，你也不会知道神有力量在洪水之中扶持你。信心越经过灾难，便越坚强、牢靠而持久。信心是宝贵的，试炼也是宝贵的。
甚愿在信心方面还幼稚的人不要因此灰心。你不去寻找，试炼也会接踵而至的：满足的份必依时量给你。这事，若你经验已经很多，但是还未结束，就当爲你所蒙的恩感谢神，要爲你已经有的信心的程度赞美他；依此而行，你必日渐多蒙神的赐福，直到你的信心能移山，幷能胜过人以爲是不可能的事爲止。
“靠耶稣度过今世，靠耶稣能行万事；我不论走何险路，惟要信靠我的主。”
November
12
“The
trial of your faith.”–1 Peter 1:7
Faith untried may be true faith, but it is
sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is
without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against
her: tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a
calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its
harbour; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush
howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the vessel
may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under
the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway
towards her desired haven. No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow
at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which
glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid
the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs
in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. You could not have believed your
own weakness had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you
would never have known God’s strength had you not been supported amid the
water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more
it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious
too.
Let not this, however, discourage those
who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the
full portion will be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if you
cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you
have; praise him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto you have
attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have more and more of
the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove mountains and conquer
impossibilities.
