EXTRACTS

Suffering has a great purifying effect upon us. It becomes the furnace in which God develops in us the gold. “More precious than of gold that perisheth”. If the soul is sustained in moral

strength through the ministrations of the Spirit, it will not shirk the suffering. And it will not be a case of, ‘I shall have to put up with it’. They “prayed and sang praises unto God”. They rejoiced that they were counted worthy. If we suffer we shall also reign with Him … In suffering you enjoy things as you never have before. Nowadays there is a little revival of the Spirit and power of Pentecost. I am sure it is so; as you realize the extent of the victory, you will be able to take up the path of suffering—suffering for righteousness. And the more one progresses, the more one sees that it is only light affliction. It is “for a moment” and “not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed”.

J. Taylor (Vol. 94, pp.133, 134)

Is it for naught that gold is put in the furnace, or because it is not gold? No; it is to purify it.

God, by trials, takes out of our hearts that which is impure, in order that, when the glory arrives, we may enjoy it.

J. N. Darby (‘Coll. Wrtgs.’. Vol.16, p.196)

If His value for us within the veil were more pondered in our hearts and treasured up there, we should go to Him without the camp with firmer, surer step. ‘I have learnt’, said one of the martyrs, ‘that there is no freedom like that of the heart that has given up all for Christ—no wisdom like that learnt at His feet—no poetry like the calm foreseeing of the glory that shall be’.

J. G. Bellett (‘The Patriarchs’, p.144)

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