THROUGH HIM THAT LOVED US --- Romans 8:35-37.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." --- Romans 8:35-37.
Stars shine brightest in the darkest night; torches are better for beating; grapes come not to proof, till they come to press; spices smell best when bruised; young trees root the faster for the shaking; gold looks brighter for scouring; juniper smells sweetest in the fire; the palm tree proves better for pressing; camomile, the more you tread it, the more you spread it.
Such is the condition of all God's children: they are then most triumphant, when most tempted; most glorious, when most afflicted; most in the favour of God, when least in man's, and least in their own; as their conflicts, so their conquests; as their tribulations, so their triumphs; true salamanders, they live best in the furnace of persecution: so that heavy afflictions are the best benefactors to heavenly affections; and where afflictions hang heaviest, corruptions hang loosest; and grace that is hid in nature, as sweet water in rose leaves is then the most fragrant when the fire of affliction is put under to distil it out.
My life, and all its comforts too,
From God's abundant bounty flow;
And when he calleth back his own,
Contented I would lay it down.
Then, if men scorn, and Satan roar,
Yet, strengthen'd by the God of power,
His faithful witness I shall be;
Though weak, I can do all through Thee.