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Spurgeon's Counsel THE TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH
"The trial of your faith."
--1 Peter 1:7
Faith untried may be true faith, but it
is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is
without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her:
tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a calm
reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its
harbour; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush
howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the vessel
may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under
the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway
towards her desired haven.
No flowers wear so lovely a blue as
those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly
as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which
springs amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives
and triumphs in adversity.
Tried faith brings experience. You
could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass
through the rivers; and you would never have known God's strength had you not
been supported amid the water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance,
and intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and
its trial is precious too.
Let not this, however, discourage those
who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the
full portion will be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if you cannot
yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have;
praise Him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto you have attained: walk
according to that rule, and you shall yet have more and more of the blessing of
God, till your faith shall remove mountains and conquer impossibilities.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
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