四月二十九日

當災禍的日子，你是我的盼望。（改譯）（耶17:17）

基督徒的道路並非只有明光照耀，也常有黑暗和風雨的時候。神的話真不錯：“祂的道是安樂，祂的路全是平安。”這話非常真實，宗教不但賜人地上的幸福，也賜人天上的福樂。經驗告訴我們說：“義人的路，好像黎明的光，越照越明，直到日午。”但有時那光卻晦暗起來。有時烏雲遮掩了信徒的陽光，他就行走在黑暗中，看不見光。有很多人有一個階段在神的面前歡喜快樂，在他們剛作基督徒的時候，他們是曝曬在陽光之中，他們是躺臥在“青草地”上，行經到“可安歇的水邊”。但突然間，他們發現晴空被浮雲遮住了，他們走的已不再是歌珊地而是荒漠了；在甜水的地方，他們卻偏偏吃到苦水。他們說：“若我是神的孩子，是不會遇到這些事的。”行走在黑暗中的人哪！你可不要這樣說。神最好的聖徒都必須飽嘗茵蔯,他所至愛的孩子都必須背十字架。沒有一個基督徒能永享興盛，沒有一位信徒能使他的琴永不“掛在柳樹上”。或許神起初把你安置在平坦光明的路上，因為你還軟弱、還膽怯。他使鍛煉的風吹在剪過毛的羊身上，現在你的靈命已經強壯起來，你必須進入神長大成人的孩子所當經歷的更成熟、更坎坷的經驗。我們需要風暴來鍛煉我們的信心，來折斷我們自恃的枯枝，使我們的根牢牢靠靠的紮在基督身上。災禍的日子臨到我們常會使我們看到自己榮耀盼望的價值。

April 29

"Thou art my hope in the day of evil." --Jeremiah 17:17

The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God's Word, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;" and it is a great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover the believer's sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the "green pastures" by the side of the "still waters," but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say, "Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness. The best of God's saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of His children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer can always keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown children. We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.