十二月十四日
他们行走，力上加力。（诗84：7）
他们力上加力地行走。这话有很多译法，但是都有前进的意思。
无论怎麽译都好。他们越走越有劲，越长越强健。平常的时候，我们走路开头有力，慢慢地就发了软弱；起行的时候精神抖擞，步伐整齐，但是渐渐地路途崎岖了，太阳也热了，我们就坐在路边歇息一会，然后再拔起我们酸痛疲弱的脚赶上漫漫的征途。但是走天路的基督徒却源源不绝地得到新鲜的恩典，虽然奋斗行走了多年，他的体力依然和起初一样的健壮旺盛。或许他不像原先那末活泼轻快，或许他不像当初那麽热烈急切；但他的力量却已大增，他走得虽然很缓慢，但是却很正确。有很多头发斑白的老练基督徒，真道把握得更牢靠，幷且和幼年时一样热切的传扬那真道；但是，可惜，我们也必须承认有很多相反的情形，有许多人的爱心冷淡了，过犯加增了，这乃是他们自己的罪，幷非神大有功效的应许有什麽错：“就是少年人也要疲乏困倦，强壮的也必全然跌倒；但那等候耶和华的，必从新得力。他们必如鹰展翅上腾，他们奔跑却不困倦，行走却不疲乏。”急躁的人却坐下来，爲他们的将来担忧。他们说：“唉，我们出了苦难，又入了苦难。”不错，你这小信的人哪！但那时你也必力上加力地往前进。你必然发现没有一种苦难不是被足够的恩典所捆起来的。神必把力量赐给成人，同时也把重负加在他长成了的双肩上。
December 14
“They go from strength to strength.”—Psalm 84:7
They go from strength
to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them
contain the idea of progress.
Our own good translation of the authorized version is
enough for us this morning. “They go from strength to strength.” That
is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from
strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but
by-and-by the road is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside,
and then again painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim having
obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel
and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so elate and
buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as he once was, but he
is much stronger in all that constitutes real power, and travels, if more
slowly, far more surely. Some gray-haired veterans have been as firm in their
grasp of truth, and as zealous in diffusing it, as they were in their younger
days; but, alas, it must be confessed it is often otherwise, for the love of
many waxes cold and iniquity abounds, but this is their own sin and not the
fault of the promise which still holds good: “The youths shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they
shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” Fretful
spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. “Alas!” say
they, “we go from affliction to affliction.” Very true, O thou of
little faith, but then thou goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt
never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it
sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood with the burden
allotted to full-grown shoulders.
