三月八日
我们进入神的国，必须经历许多艰难。（徒14:22）
神的民有患难。当神选召他民的时候，他并没有预定他们，使他们不经受试炼。他们是在苦难的炉中被拣选的，神并非拣选他们使他们享受属世的平安，地上的福乐。神并没有应许他们可以免去病痛和死亡，但当他们的神规定他们当得的权益时，他也把责罚包括在他们当得的名分中。患难是我们该得的部分，神早已为我们定好了，末后又由基督传给了我们。他的手怎样安定了星宿，规定了它们的轨道，我们所当得的患难也是这样：他为它们定了时间和地点，以及临到我们时的强度和效果。好人不应期望逃避困难；若果如此，也必失望，因为在他们以先的人都已经饱尝过。我们看看约伯的忍耐；记住亚伯拉罕和他的患难，但因他的信心便胜过了那些，所以成为“信心的始祖”。翻开英雄、先知、使徒和殉道者的传记，就必发现没有一个蒙神怜悯的人，不经过苦难的火的。神的每一种恩典上都应当印着苦难之十字架的记号，好分辨是属神的。患难是神子民的道路，但他们也必得到安慰，因为知道耶稣也曾在他们之前经过那些；他们必得到安慰，因为知道耶稣也曾在他们之前经过那些；他们必得他的同在和同情使自己得以鼓舞，他的恩典扶持他们，并且他的榜样也教他们如何忍受；当他们经过“许多艰难”进入“神国”时，他们所得到的必然超过他们的忍受的。
“凡我在世所遇变更，无论为苦为乐；我必常用我心我声，称扬天父恩德。”
March 8
“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of
God.” –Acts 14:22
God’s people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when He
chose His people, that they should be an untried people. They were chosen in
the furnace of affliction; they were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly
joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised them;
but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, He included
chastisements amongst the things to which they should inevitably be heirs.
Trials are a part of our lot; they were predestinated for us in Christ’s last
legacy. So surely as the stars are fashioned by his hands, and their orbits
fixed by Him, so surely are our trials allotted to us: He has ordained their
season and their place, their intensity and the effect they shall have upon us.
Good men must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be
disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them. Mark the
patience of Job; remember Abraham, for he had his trials, and by his faith
under them, he became the “Father of the faithful.” Note well the
biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and you
shall discover none of those whom God made vessels of mercy, who were not made
to pass through the fire of affliction. It is ordained of old that the cross of
trouble should be engraved on every vessel of mercy, as the royal mark whereby
the King’s vessels of honour are distinguished. But although tribulation is
thus the path of God’s children, they have the comfort of knowing that their
Master has traversed it before them; they have His presence and sympathy to
cheer them, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to
endure; and when they reach “the kingdom,” it will more than make
amends for the “much tribulation” through which they passed to enter
it.
