Sanctified Trials

There is a certain sweetness in one's seoing himself npon his trials for heaven, and standing candidate for glory; there is a pleasure in travelling over these mountains where the Christian can see the prints of Christ's own feet, and the footsteps of the flock who have been before him. How pleasant is it to a saint, in the exercise of grace, to see how a good God crosseth his corrupt inclinations and prevents his folly! Of a truth there is a paradise within this thorn-hedge. Many a time the people of God are in bonds which are never loosed till they be bound with cords of affliction. God takes them and throws them into a fiery furnace that burns off their bonds; and then, like the three children (Dan. iii. 25), they are loose, walking in the midst of the fire. God gives His children a potion, with one bitter ingredient; if that will not work upon them, He will put in a second, and so on, as there is need, that they may work together for their good. 'With cross winds He hastens them to their harbour. Worldly things are often such a load to the Christian that he moves but very slowly heavenward. God sends a wind of trouble that blows the burden off his back; and then he walks more speedily on his way, after God hath drawn some gilded earth from him that was drawing his heart away from God.—Boston