The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

470 Cbe fjoltest of SH
compared with the glory which shall be revealed. The triumph
of faith is seen as much in bearing a temporary defeat as
securing a victory. The victory of the vanquished
is often the
highest achievement
In these men and women, leaders in the noble army of the
martyrs, rejected and despised by the world, God sees the
heavenly beauty of a faith that honours Him, and that counts
His will, His favour, His righteousness, as more than all earthly
happiness. By faith they had such a sight of God and His
good pleasure, that they could with joy sacrifice everything
to secure it.
By faith they could, for the joy set before them,
in the assurance of a heavenly recompense, count all the
pleasures of earth as less than nothing. It is one of the highest
and noblest exercises of faith to suffer aright. And the blessing
that comes through suffering is one of the richest rewards that
faith can win.
God has given us these examples of those who by faith
triumphed over the extremities of suffering, that we might from
them learn how to bear our lesser trials. Their faith in extra
ordinary suffering must strengthen ours in ordinary.
little common trials of daily life that every
It is in the
believer can follow
in the footsteps of these saints, in the footsteps of the great
Leader of our salvation. By faith alone are we able to bear
suffering, great or small, aright, to God s glory or our own
welfare.
Yes, by faith alone. Faith sees it in the light
of God and
eternity ;
its short pain, its everlasting gain ;
its impotence to
hurt the soul, its
power to purify and to bless it. It sees Him
who allows it, with us in the fire, as a refiner watching our
purging and perfecting,
as a helper of our strength and comfort.
It sees that the forming of a character like that of the Son of