Morning, November 12
Go To Evening Reading
“The trial of your faith.”
1 Peter 1:7
Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith,
and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials.
Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: tempests
are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a calm
reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not
to its harbour; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let
the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves,
then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with
waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling
sail, it is then that she makes headway towards her desired haven.
No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of
the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which glisten
in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid
the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and
triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. You could not
have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass
through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength had you not been supported amid the water-floods. Faith
increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is exercised
with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too.
Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You
will have trials enough without seeking them: the full portion will
be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if you cannot yet
claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you
have; praise him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto you
have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have
more and more of the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove
mountains and conquer impossibilities.