七月十一日
等你们暂受苦难之后，必要亲自成全你们，坚固你们，赐力量给你们。（彼前5：10）
你看到蔚蓝的天空，它的顔色是多艶丽，多鲜明。它太美丽了，但霎时没有了！不，你看，它又出现了。轻云似絮遮没太空，长天的美色顿时消失。这幷不是固定了的。那怎麽能够呢？雨后的斜阳虽可带来美好的景色，但怎能长久呢？基督徒品格上的美德切莫像彩虹一样只有一忽儿的美景，而应固定、竪立、长久。信徒啊！要使你每一种美点都能长久。不要把你的品格写在沙土上，而要刻在磐石上！愿你的信心不要出于无根无据的幻想，而要用坚固的材料来建造，免得经不起那能烧去虚假之人的草木禾秸的可怕的烈火。
愿你在爱中有根有基，愿你的信更深，你的爱更纯，人的望更真。愿你整个的生命都坚固牢靠，是地狱的火和地上的风所不能动摇摧毁的。要留意怎样才能在“已有的真道上坚固”呢？使徒告诉我们说：受苦难是一种方法——“等你们暂受苦难之后”。若暴风不吹打我们，我们就不能盼望我们的根能扎得更深。大树根上的疤瘤，错综交缠的叉根，都证明它们已经饱经风暴的击打，也证明它们曾争先恐后地奋力扎根。基督徒要强壮起来也得这样，须经人生的苦难和风暴才能把根扎好。所以当我们遇见苦难的风暴时不要畏缩不前，要坦然，要安静，要知道神必藉它们粗暴的手段赐福于你。
神要在我们的身上满足他的心愿，所以他要我们在熬炼中增长壮大起来。
July 11
“After that ye have suffered awhile, make you
perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” — 1 Peter 5:10
You have seen the arch
of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its colours, and rare its hues.
It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours
give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no longer brilliant with the tints
of heaven. It is not established. How can it be? A glorious show made up of
transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The graces of
the Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its transitory beauty,
but, on the contrary, must be stablished, settled, abiding. Seek, O believer,
that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not
be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be
no “baseless fabric of a vision,” but may it be builded of material
able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble
of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions
be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so
settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of
earth shall never be able to remove you. But notice how this blessing of being
“stablished in the faith” is gained. The apostle’s words point us to
suffering as the means employed–“After that ye have suffered
awhile.” It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough
winds pass over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and those
strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many storms that have swept
over it, and they are also indicators of the depth into which the roots have
forced their way. So the Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the
trials and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial,
but take comfort, believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling
this benediction to you.
