Morning, March 8
Go To Evening Reading
“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.