四月二十九日
当灾祸的日子，你是我的盼望。（改译）（耶17:17）
基督徒的道路并非只有明光照耀，也常有黑暗和风雨的时候。神的话真不错：“祂的道是安乐，祂的路全是平安。”这话非常真实，宗教不但赐人地上的幸福，也赐人天上的福乐。经验告诉我们说：“义人的路，好像黎明的光，越照越明，直到日午。”但有时那光却晦暗起来。有时乌云遮掩了信徒的阳光，他就行走在黑暗中，看不见光。有很多人有一个阶段在神的面前欢喜快乐，在他们刚作基督徒的时候，他们是曝晒在阳光之中，他们是躺卧在“青草地”上，行经到“可安歇的水边”。但突然间，他们发现晴空被浮云遮住了，他们走的已不再是歌珊地而是荒漠了；在甜水的地方，他们却偏偏吃到苦水。他们说：“若我是神的孩子，是不会遇到这些事的。”行走在黑暗中的人哪！你可不要这样说。神最好的圣徒都必须饱尝茵蔯,他所至爱的孩子都必须背十字架。没有一个基督徒能永享兴盛，没有一位信徒能使他的琴永不“挂在柳树上”。或许神起初把你安置在平坦光明的路上，因为你还软弱、还胆怯。他使锻炼的风吹在剪过毛的羊身上，现在你的灵命已经强壮起来，你必须进入神长大成人的孩子所当经历的更成熟、更坎坷的经验。我们需要风暴来锻炼我们的信心，来折断我们自恃的枯枝，使我们的根牢牢靠靠的扎在基督身上。灾祸的日子临到我们常会使我们看到自己荣耀盼望的价值。
April 29
“Thou art my hope in the day of evil.” –Jeremiah 17:17
The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his
seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God’s Word, “Her
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;” and it is a
great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well
as bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be
“As the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day,” yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover
the believer’s sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many
who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the
sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked
along the “green pastures” by the side of the “still
waters,” but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of
the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet
waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say, “Surely,
if I were a child of God, this would not happen.” Oh! say not so, thou who
art walking in darkness. The best of God’s saints must drink the wormwood; the
dearest of His children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual
prosperity; no believer can always keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the
Lord allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak
and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are
stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher
experience of God’s full-grown children. We need winds and tempests to exercise
our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more
firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.
