Holiest of All by Andrew Murray

Zbc ibolicst of ail 487
chastening was too heavy, more than you deserved or are able to
bear.
Beware above everything, in your Christian Hfe, of casting
away your boldness, of becoming impatient, of losing
courage.
It is trial and vexation, care and anxiety, persecution or reproach
that often causes this. Learn to-day the secret of never suffering
loss in the soul by the sufferings of life— yea, rather, of
always making them your greatest gain. Link tJiem to God and
to Jesjis. It is God who sends them. He sent them to Jesus
and perfected Him through them. He sends them to thee in
the same love, and will make them thy highest gain.
every inward and outward trouble,
" Receive
every disappointment, pain,
uneasiness, temptation, darkness, desolation, with both thy
hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to
self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying,
suffering Saviour."
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
Sufferings are for chastening. And chastening is from love,
a token of God's fatherly care. We live in a world full of trial and
suffering. Thousands of God's children have complained that
their circumstances were too unfavourable for a life of full
devotion, of close intercourse with God, of pressing on unto perfection.
The duties and difficulties, the cares and troubles of
life, render it impossible, they say, to live a fully consecrated
life.
Would God that they might learn the lesson of His word
Every trial comes from God as a call to come away from the
world to Him, to trust Him, to believe in His love. In every
trial He will give strength and blessing. Let but this truth be
accepted, in every trial, small or great: first of all and at once
recognise God's hand in it. Say at once : My Father has
allowed this to come
;
I welcome it from Him
; my first care is