THE SAINT'S EDUCATION
THE SAINT’S EDUCATION
A saint is like a plant, he has to pass through every season, winter as well as summer, and the winter precedes spring. The plant does not wither because it is winter. The one with soft leaves loses them, but the sap remains in it, and in the largest tree it remains up to the topmost shoot. The winter is the time when the sap is concentrated, and thus the branch is invigorated for the coming growth in spring. “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4: 12). You must not think winter a strange time for you. If the whole year, the whole circle of your stay on earth, was only summer you would be unnatural in a world of evil like this. People in their folly wish for nothing but sunshine here, and when they have had much of it, they are ill prepared for the severity of winter. “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; ... the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work” (James 1: 2 - 4). The exercise of soul — the effect of the winter is to make you more certified of the power which sustains life in spite of all the checks, the very atmosphere morally not only not helping you, but tending to cloud and enervate you. If you understand how necessary it is for you to pass through this winter in order that the young and succulent shoots may be established in your soul, you will apply yourself steadily to gain the full advantage that is to be gained from the exaction of the winter. If not, you will be distracted by the strangeness of it, and the time will be lost and no real gain secured.
I am glad to have such an interest in you, for I am sure that the Lord has, and His desire is to separate you from [p. 170] everything contrary to God, and to lead you into everything belonging to Himself. What an exchange! Show a person a beautiful thing, and he will drop the common things. Look up first, and then look down. The flowers look up for the sun, and then they give out their beautiful colours. Keep the Lord before you, judging of everything by Him, and though you fail, you will find you are becoming not only habituated to keep Him before you, but that you are growing in ability to do so, and deriving gain in joy and strength to your own soul, even though it separates you from many a thing which you once took an interest in; but instead of being a loser you will find new and divine interests.