Quote of the Day

"Do your work, O faith! Consider this medicine for your faith to drink in comfort: not the slightest trouble befalls you without the overruling hand of God. He is not only our wise God, but a tender Father. He knows what you are made of and measures out exactly every cross unto us as a chemist measures out grams of medicine. 

 Faith realizes that our current state is not the result of the axe of judgment, but the pruning knife of affliction. It is not a cup to poison but to heal, no matter how bitter the taste. You are kept by His power and the evil one cannot touch you. You are in a safe harbor under the rock of Christ. You will never be confounded. If there is sickness or poverty, it is in your Father's own hand. If a rod comes from a malicious enemy's hand, your Father stands by, looks on, and will moderate the number of stripes...God knows your strength and will not permit them to lay on you more than you are able to bear. His wisdom and grace shall be sufficient for you. Faith further assures you that God not only restrains your crosses, He has determined that they will bring the greatest benefit possible to you. Being administered by a Father who knows your frame, it will work for your very best. When you feel your heart sinking for the present, remember you will be better many days after. Faith reminds us that Christ is our partner in affliction. He upholds the greatest part of our burden. Jesus on the way to glory suffered the crown of thorns, the spittings, the buffetings, the mockings and reproaches of vile sinners, and showed himself to be the Son of God, not by coming down from the cross, but by enduring it. If you wish to be his disciple, the first lesson in his school is the cross. Deny yourself, take it up, and follow him. Glory with the martyrs, and our Master. Faith sets before it the infinite payment of reward and eternal weight of glory. Paul in light of this, counted his afflictions light and momentary in comparison. This made him sing in the dungeon. 'Many are the troubles of the righteous, but by faith we stand, by faith we fight, by faith we overcome.' "

                                       - Samuel Ward in Voices From the Past