The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

Iboliest of mi 493
CXVI.
YET AFTERWARD.
XII. 11. All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous, but
grievous: yet afterward it beareth peaceable fruit unto them that have
been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
12. "Wherefore, lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees ;
13. And ;make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not
put out of joint, but rather be healed.
He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of
His holiness.
was to say of affliction. Suffering
That word was the summing up
of all that there
was to be God s
messenger to
lead us into, not a place or a position, but a life and an experi
ence, into fitness for and inner union with the Holiest of All,
and the Most Holy One who dwells there. Higher honour have
none of God s servants than this one, unwelcome and rejected
though it so often be. By all that is sacred and worthy of
desire, the word would have us know and believe that affliction
is a blessing. And yet
it does not ignore the fact that the
chastisement causes pain. As an old believer said, when
speaking of one of the promises, Yes, it is blessedly true ;
but
still it hurts. Therefore, our writer continues, All chastening
for the present seemeth to be grievous: yet afterward it
yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised
thereby, even the fruit of righteousness. To the flesh which
judges by what is
present and by sense, it is distinctly, often
terribly, grievous. Faith which lives in the future and unseen,