The Exquisite Love of God
October 29.
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
ISAIAH 48, verse 10.
Be patient, suffering soul! I hear thy cry.
The trial fires may glow, but I am nigh.
I see the silver, and I will refine
Until My image shall upon it shine.
Fear not, for I am near, thy help to be;
Greater than all thy pain, My love for thee.
H. W. C.
God takes a thousand times more pains with
us than the artist with his picture, by many
touches of sorrow, and by many colors of
circumstance, to bring man into the form which
is the highest and noblest in His sight,
if only we received His gifts and myrrh in the
right spirit. But when the cup is put away, and
these feelings are stifled or unheeded, a greater
injury is done to the soul than can ever be amended.
For no heart can conceive in what surpassing love
God giveth us this myrrh; yet this which we ought
to receive to our soul's good, we suffer to pass by
us in our sleepy indifference, and nothing comes,
of it. Then we come and complain: "Alas, Lord! I
am so dry, and it is so dark within me!" I tell
thee, dear child, open thy heart to the pain, and it
will do thee more good than if thou wert full of
feeling and devoutness.
J. TAULER.
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
ISAIAH 48, verse 10.
Be patient, suffering soul! I hear thy cry.
The trial fires may glow, but I am nigh.
I see the silver, and I will refine
Until My image shall upon it shine.
Fear not, for I am near, thy help to be;
Greater than all thy pain, My love for thee.
H. W. C.
God takes a thousand times more pains with
us than the artist with his picture, by many
touches of sorrow, and by many colors of
circumstance, to bring man into the form which
is the highest and noblest in His sight,
if only we received His gifts and myrrh in the
right spirit. But when the cup is put away, and
these feelings are stifled or unheeded, a greater
injury is done to the soul than can ever be amended.
For no heart can conceive in what surpassing love
God giveth us this myrrh; yet this which we ought
to receive to our soul's good, we suffer to pass by
us in our sleepy indifference, and nothing comes,
of it. Then we come and complain: "Alas, Lord! I
am so dry, and it is so dark within me!" I tell
thee, dear child, open thy heart to the pain, and it
will do thee more good than if thou wert full of
feeling and devoutness.
J. TAULER.
