Aug. 27
CHOICE MEN
"I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" Isa. 48:10
This has long been the motto fixed before our eye upon the wall of
our bedroom, and in many ways it has also been written on our heart.
It is no mean thing to be chosen of God. God's choice makes chosen men
choice men. Better to be the elect of God than the elect of a whole
nation. So eminent is this privilege, that whatever drawback may be
joined to it we very joyfully accept it, even as the Jew ate the
bitter herbs for the sake of the Paschal Lamb. We choose the furnace,
since God chooses us in it.
We are chosen as an afflicted people, and not as a prosperous
people, chosen not in the palace, but in the furnace. In the furnace
beauty is marred, fashion is destroyed, strength is melted, glory is
consumed, and yet here eternal love reveals its secrets, and declares
its choice. So has it been in our case. In times of severest trial God
has made to us our calling and election plain, and we have made it
sure: then have we chosen the Lord to be our God, and He has shown
that we are assuredly His chosen. Therefore, if today the furnace be
heated seven times hotter, we will not dread it, for the glorious Son
of God will walk with us amid the glowing coals.