"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.
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