十二月三十日
事情的终局强如事情的起头。（传7：8）
你要看大卫的神和主，看他的起头，“他被藐视，被人厌弃，多受痛苦，常经忧患。”你愿意看一看终局吗？他坐在他父的右边，等他的仇敌作他的脚凳。“他如何，我们在这世上也如何。”你必须背十字架，不然你就不会戴冠冕；你必须经过淤泥，不然你就不会到达黄金街。可怜的基督徒啊！’鼓起勇气来吧。“事情的终局强如事情的起头。”你看蠕动爬行的虫子，是多麽难看呀！但那是事情的起头。当它展开美丽的翅膀，在日光中飞来舞去，在花心里含英咀华、吸露吮蜜的时候，是多麽满有快乐呀！这就是事情的终局。那一条毛虫就是你，终至被死的蛹缠绕起来；但当基督显现的时候，你必像他，因爲你必得见他的真体。
你虽然是一条虫，而不是人，但是你既像他就当知足，当你活过来的时候，你有了他的形象就满足了。璞玉必须经过玉匠的琢磨，他把它的四周切磋干净。它失去了很多在它以爲是很有价值的东西。君王加冕的时候，王冠一戴在君王的头上，号筒便吹出了欢乐的乐声。宝石在冠冕上非常光彩夺目，但适才却受尽了切磋琢磨之苦。你可以把你比作宝石，因爲你也是神的民；现在正是你受雕琢的时候。愿信心和忍耐完成它们的工作，因爲当冠冕加在永生、长存、无形的君王头上时，必有一条荣耀的光綫从你发射出来。耶和华说：“在我收聚珍宝的日子，他们必属我。”“事情的终局强如事情的起头。”
December 30
“Better is the end of a thing than the
beginning thereof.”—Ecclesiastes 7:8
Look at David’s Lord and Master;
see his beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at his Father’s right
hand, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. “As he is, so are
we also in this world.” You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear
the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden
pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. “Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof.” See that creeping worm, how contemptible its
appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous
wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness
and life; that is the end thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are
wrapped up in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you shall be
like him, for you shall see him as he is. Be content to be like him, a worm and
no man, that like him you may be satisfied when you wake up in his likeness.
That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on
all sides. It loses much-much that seemed costly to itself. The king is
crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch’s head with trumpet’s joyful sound.
A glittering ray flashes from that coronet, and it beams from that very diamond
which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary. You may venture to compare
yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God’s people; and this is the
time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work,
for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal,
Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you. “They shall
be mine,” saith the Lord, “in the day when I make up my jewels.”
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”
