A Goodly Heritage

"There was given to me a thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7). "There was given to me…" Can, then, the thorn be a gift from God? I am in the habit of seeing God’s gifts in the abundance of the things which my life possesses, and I call those things the dangers of life which diminish the sum of its abundance. But here there is a complete reversal of my thought; the abundance is the danger, and that which diminishes it is the gift. Paul has been exalted above measure; he has been standing on the heights of prosperity, and summering in the sunshine of a cloudless day. The cloudlessness of the day is his greatest danger, and there is sent a mist over the sun. His spiritual life has been fragrant with the breath of flowers. The thorn is, for the time, God’s best gift to his soul; there is something protective in it. It has no fragrance, it has no beauty, but it yields one of the sweetest uses of adversity—it reminds a human spirit that it is, after all, only human. ...

It is only in moments of unselfishness that I am free . The iron chain that binds me is the thought of myself and of my own calamities ; if I could be but liberated from that , my captivity would be turned in an hour . If under the shadow of a cloud , I could remember that the shadow of the same cloud hovers over my brother - man the vision of his shadow would destroy mine . In the moment of prayer for him my burden would fall from me . I would seek it , and lo ! it would not be found ; it would be as if it had not been . O Thou Divine Spirit of self - forgetfulness , Spirit of Christ , Spirit of the Cross , it is in Thee alone that I find this freedom . Liberate me from myself , and instead of the iron chain , give me a chain of gold . It is not the chain that lowers me , it is the material of which it is made ; it is not the sorrow that makes me a captive , it is the centering of the sorrow round my own life . Help me to take up the burdens of others . Help me to know what it is ...

"To reveal His Son in me ." Galatians 1 : 16.    Paul is here describing the process of his own conversion, the light which he saw from heaven .He says that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him . Why in him?  Why does he not say , "it pleased God to reveal His Son to me "? Did it not arrest him at midday with a glory above the brightness of the sun ? Did it not bar the way to his old nature , and bid his life to pause in the midst of his journey ? Surely that picture of his Lord was a vision to his eye , Nay , but can any picture be a vision to the eye ?Can a thing be revealed to me that has not been revealed in me ?Is the landscape on which I gaze revealed only to my outward vision ? Nay , or it would not be revealed at all  ; there could be no beauty without , if there were not a sense of beauty within . Is the music to which I listen revealed only to my outward ear ? Nay, or I would be deaf to it forever more ; there could be no harmony without if the...

My soul ,do not despise the shadows of life . Do not say that they are exceptions to the proof of Divine intelligence ; do not exclaim when they are passing over thee that thy way is hid from the Lord . These shadows are sent to thee , not as hidings , but as revelations of the face of God ; they come to thee as messengers of light . They tell thee what thou could not know without them - that there is a life stronger than natural life . How could you learn that , if the natural life never failed you ? How could faith begin if sight were perfect ? How could trust exist if there were no darkness ? It is the darkness that lights thee , and it is from the shadows that thy spiritual nature is illuminated . From the sense of human emptiness thou reachest that prophetic hunger which is certain to be filled; your life rises , Phoenix -like , from the ashes of your dying , and out of your deepest darkness God says , "Let there be light."