The Trial of Your Faith

The Trial of Your Faith

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, DECEMBER 2, 1888,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"The trial of your faith." 1 Peter 1:7.

IT is a great thing if any man can truthfully speak to you, my Brothers
and Sisters, about "your faith," for all men have not faith and
wherever faith is found, it is the token of Divine favor. True faith
is, in every case, the operation of the Spirit of God. Its nature is
purifying, elevating, heavenly. It is, of all things that can be
cultivated in the human breast, one of the most precious. It is called,
"like precious faith," and it is styled "the faith of God's elect."
Wherever faith is found, it is the sure mark of eternal election, the
sign of a blessed condition, the forecast of a heavenly destiny. It is
the eye of the renewed soul, the hand of the regenerated mind, the
mouth of the newborn spirit. It is the evidence of spiritual life–it
is the mainspring of holiness–it is the foundation of delight–it is
the prophecy of glory–it is the dawn of endless knowledge.

If you have faith, you have infinitely more than he who has all the
world and yet is destitute of faith. To him that believes it is said,
"All things are yours." Faith is the assurance of sonship, the pledge
of inheritance, the grasp of boundless possession, the perception of
the invisible. Within your faith there lies Glory, even as the oak
sleeps within the acorn. If you have faith, you need not ask for much
more, save that your faith may grow exceedingly and that all the
promises which are made to it may be known and grasped by you. Time
would fail me to tell of the powers, the privileges, the possessions
and the prospects of faith. He that has it is blessed. For he pleases
God, he is justified before the throne of holiness, he has full access
to the Throne of Grace and he has the preparation for reigning with
Christ forever.

So far everything is delightful. But then comes, in this word, which
somewhat startles and, if we are cowardly, may also frighten–"The
trial of your faith." Do you see the thorn which grows with this rose?
You cannot gather the fragrant flower without its rough companion. You
cannot possess the faith without experiencing the trial. Nor eat the
lamb without the bitter herbs. These two things are put together–faith
and trial. And it is of that trial of your faith that I am going to
speak at this time, as God shall help me.

It may be, my Brothers and Sisters, that words said at this good hour
shall comfort you while you undergo the sorer trial of your faith. May
the Holy Spirit, who nurtures faith and preserves and perfects it under
its trial, help our thoughts at this hour!

I. And, first, let me say of it, YOUR FAITH WILL BE SURELY TRIED. You
may rest assured of that. A man may have faith and be for the present
without trial. But no man ever had faith and was all his life without
trial. That could not–must not be. For faith, in the very nature of
it, implies a degree of trial. I believe the promise of God. So far my
faith is tried in believing the promise, in waiting for the fulfillment
of the promise, in holding on to an assurance of that promise while it
is delayed and in continuing to expect the promise and to act upon it
until it is in all points fulfilled to me.

I do not see how that can be faith at all which is not tried by its own
exercise. Take the very happiest and smoothest lives. There must, at
any rate, be the trial of faith in taking the promise and pleading it
before God in prayer and expecting the fulfillment of it. Be not
mistaken, God never gave us faith to play with. It is a sword but it
was not made for presentation on a gala day, nor to be worn on State
occasions only, nor to be exhibited upon a parade ground. It is a sword
that was meant to cut and wound and slay. And he that has it girt about
him may expect, between here and Heaven, that he shall know what battle
means.

Faith is a sound sea-going vessel and was not meant to lie in dock and
perish of dry rot. To whom God has given faith, it is as though one
gave a lantern to his friend because he expected it to be dark on his
way home. The very gift of faith is a hint to you that you will need
it–that at certain points and places you will especially require it
and that–at

all points and in every place, you will really need it. You cannot live
without faith–for again and again we are told– "the just shall live
by faith." Believing is our living and we, therefore, need it always.

And if God gives you great faith, my dear Brethren, you must expect
great trials. For, in proportion as your faith shall grow, you will
have to do more and endure more. Little boats may keep close to shore,
as becomes little boats. But if God makes you a great vessel and loads
you with a rich freight, He means that you should know what great
billows are and should feel their fury till you see "His wonders in the
deep." That God, who has made nothing in vain, especially makes nothing
in the spiritual kingdom in vain. And if He makes faith, it is with the
design that it should be used to the utmost and exercised to the full.

Expect trial, also, because trial is the very element of faith. Faith
is a salamander that lives in the fire, a star which moves in a lofty
sphere, a diamond which bores its way through the rock. Faith without
trial is like a diamond uncut, the brilliance of which has never been
seen. Untried faith is such little faith that some have thought it no
faith at all. What a fish would be without water, or a bird without
air, that would be faith without trial. If you have faith, you may
surely expect that your faith will be tested–the great Keeper of the
treasures admits no coin to His coffers without testing.

It is so in the nature of faith and so in the order of its living–it
thrives not, save in such weather as might seem to threaten its death.
Indeed, it is the honor of faith to be tried. Shall any man say, "I
have faith, but I have never had to believe under difficulties"? Who
knows whether you have any faith? Shall a man say, "I have great faith
in God but I have never had to use it in anything more than the
ordinary affairs of life, where I could probably have done without it
as well as with it"? Is this to the honor and praise of your faith? Do
you think that such a faith as this will bring any great glory to God,
or bring to you any great reward? If so, you are mightily mistaken.

He that has tested God and whom God has tested, is the man that shall
have it said of him, "Well done, you good and faithful servant." Had
Abraham stopped in Ur of the Chaldees with his friends and rested there
and enjoyed himself, where had been his faith? He had God's command to
leave his country to go to a land which he had never seen, to sojourn
there with God as a stranger, dwelling in tents. And in his obedience
to that call his faith began to be illustrious. Where had been the
glory of his faith, if it had not been called to brave and self-denying
deeds? Would he ever have risen to that supreme height, to be "the
Father of the faithful," if he had not grown old and his body dead and
yet he had believed that God would give him seed of his aged wife
Sarah, according to the promise? It was blessed faith that made him
feel that nothing was impossible to God. If Isaac had been born to him
in the days of his strength, where had been his faith?

And when it came to that severer test, "Take now your son, your only
son Isaac, whom you love and offer him for a burnt offering upon one of
the mountains which I will tell you of." When he rose up early and
gathered the wood and took his son and went three days' journey,
setting his face like a flint to obey the Command of God–when at last
he drew the knife, in faithful obedience to the Divine Command–then
was his faith confessed, commended and crowned. Then the Lord said,
"Now I know." As if, even to God, the best evidence of Abraham's faith
had then been displayed– when he staggered not at the promise through
unbelief, reckoning that God could restore Isaac from the dead if need
be–but that it was his to obey the supreme Command and trust all
consequences with God, who could not lie.

Herein his faith won great renown and he became "the Father of the
faithful," because he was the most tried of Believers and yet surpassed
them all in childlike belief in his God. If God, then, has given to
anyone of us a faith which is honorable and precious it has full surely
been submitted to its own due measure of trial. And if it is to be
still more precious, it has yet more trials to endure.

We remember, also, two reasons for the trial of faith. The trial of
your faith is sent to prove its sincerity. If it will not stand trial,
what is the good of it? That gold which dissolves in the furnace and
disappears amid the flame is not the gold which shall be current with
the merchant. And that faith of yours, which is no sooner tried than
straightway it evaporates, are you not well rid of it? Of what use
would it be to you in the hour of death and in the Day of Judgment? No.
You can not be sure that your faith is true faith till it is tried
faith. You can not be certain that it is worth having till it has been
fitly tested and brought to the touchstone of trial.

It must also be tested to prove its strength. We sometimes fancy that
we have strong faith when, indeed, our faith is very weak. And how are
we to know whether it is weak or strong till it is tried? A man that
should lie in bed week after week and perhaps get the idle whim into
his head that he was very strong would be pretty certain to be
mistaken. It is only when he sets about work requiring muscular
strength that he will discover how strong or how weak he is. God would
not have us form a wrong estimate of ourselves. He loves not that we
should say that we are rich and increased in goods and have need of
nothing

when we are the reverse. And therefore He sends to us the trial of our
faith that we may understand how strong or how weak it is.

And besides that, dear Friends, the trial of our faith is necessary to
remove its dross. There are many accretions of sordid matter about our
purest graces. We are apt, ourselves, to add to the bulk of our graces
without adding to the real value of them. We mistake quantity for
quality. And a great deal of what we think we have of Christian
experience and Christian knowledge and Christian zeal and Christian
patience is only the supposition that we have these graces and not the
real possession of them.

So the fire grows fiercer and the mass grows smaller than it was
before. Is there any loss therein? I think not. The gold loses nothing
by the removal of its dross and our faith loses nothing by the
dissipation of its apparent force. Faith may apparently lose, but it
actually gains. It may seem to be diminished, but it is not truly
diminished. All is there that was worth having. "Why, a week ago," says
one, "I used to sing and think that I had the full assurance of faith.
And now I can scarcely tell whether I am one of God's people or not."
Now you know how much faith you really possess.

You can now tell how much was solid and how much was sham. For had that
which has failed you been real faith, it would not have been consumed
by any trial through which it has passed. You have lost the froth from
the top of the cup but all that was really worth having is still there.
It must be so–for as faith is not born of earthly things–neither can
earthly things kill it, nor even take from it one true particle.

Understand, then, dear Friends, that for many necessary purposes there
is a needs be for trial. Peter says here, "If need be" that there
should be a trial of your faith. You will get that trial, because God,
in His wisdom, will give faith what faith needs. Do not be anxious to
enter into trial. Do not fret if temptation does not come just now. You
will have it soon enough. Between the day of our new birth and the day
of our entering into our inheritance, we shall have quite sufficient
trials of our faith. We need not be uneasy if for a while we are at
ease, for there are months enough left to the year to give winter its
full measure of frosts and storms.

II. Now, secondly, YOUR FAITH WILL BE TRIED IN VARIOUS WAYS. The trial
of our faith does not come to all persons in the same way. There are
some whose faith is tried each day in their communion with God. They
pray this prayer– "Search me, O God and know my heart: try me and know
my thoughts: and see if there is any wicked way in me. And lead me in
the way everlasting." That prayer is heard constantly. The visitations
of the Lord are granted to them and as the Lord comes, He tries them.
For, believe me, there is no surer trial of our souls than the drawing
near of God to our souls.

Apart from any outward affliction, that searching thought, that inward
feeling which is somewhat more than thought, that holy, secret
trembling which comes upon our spirit when God draws near, is God's
constant trial of our graces. If you walk away from God and live
without fellowship with Him, you may retain in your heart much
falsehood and fancy that you are full of spiritual gifts and graces.
But if you draw near to God and walk with Him, you will not be able to
retain a false opinion of yourself. Remember what the Lord is. Our God
is a consuming fire.

I have often reminded you of the way in which people try to improve
upon the Scripture when they say, "God out of Christ is a consuming
fire." The Bible does not so speak. It says, "For our God is a
consuming fire." That is, God in Christ, who is our God, is a consuming
fire. And when His people live in Him, the very Presence of God
consumes in them their love of sin and all their pretentious graces and
fictitious attainments so that the false disappears and only the true
survives. The presence of perfect Holiness is killing to empty
boastings and hollow pretences. You need not ask for any of those
various forms of trial which God sends in the order of Providence–you
may rest quite satisfied with His Presence, as the most effectual
purgation. For "His fan is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge His
floor."

Whenever Jesus abides with us, "He shall sit as a refiner." Whoever He
may leave alone in their defilement, "He will purify the sons of Levi."
It is the Lord Himself that will be as a refiner's fire and like
fullers' soap. Who may abide the day of His coming? Who that loves
holiness would wish to escape it? Our prayer should be–"Refining fire
go through my soul." Yes, let the devouring flame go through me and
through me yet again, till this earthly grossness shall begin to
disappear. As Moses soon put his shoes off from his feet when he beheld
God at the burning bush, so shall we put off the superfluities of our
supposed spiritual experience and come to the real, naked foot of the
Truth of God, if we are permitted to stand before God in accepted
sincerity. Thus you see there is a constant trial of our faith, even in
that which is its greatest joy and glory, namely its power to make us
see the Lord.

But the Lord uses other methods with His servants. I believe that He
frequently tries us by the blessings which He sends us. This is a fact
which is too much overlooked. When a man is permitted to grow rich,
what a trial of faith is hidden away in that condition! It is one of
the severest of providential tests! Where I have known one man fail
through poverty, I have known fifty

men fail through riches. When our friends get on in the world and have
a long stretch of prosperity, they should invite their Brethren to
offer special prayer for them, that they may be preserved–for the
thick clay is heavy stuff to walk upon and when the feet slip into it,
and it adheres to you, it makes traveling to Heaven a very difficult
thing.

When we do not cling to wealth, it will not harm us. But there is a
deal of stickiness in money. You that have no riches may yet find a
test in your daily mercies–your domestic comfort, that loving wife,
those dear children–all these may tempt you to walk by sight instead
of by faith. Yes, and continued health, the absence of all depression
of spirit and the long abiding of friends and relatives may all make
you self-content and keep you away from your God.

It is a great trial of faith to have much for sight to rest upon. To be
in the dark–altogether in the dark–is a grand thing for faith. For
then you are sure that what you see is not seen of the flesh but is in
very deed a vision of spiritual faith. To be under a cloud is a trial,
truly–but not one-half so much a trial as it is to have continually
the light of this world. We are so apt to mistake the light of carnal
comfort for the light of God, that it is well to see how we fare
without it.

One form of this trial is praise. You know how Solomon puts it–"As the
fining-pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his
praise." A Christian minister may go on preaching very earnestly and
God will help him, though everybody opposes him. But when the world
comes and pats him on the back and pride whispers, "You are a fine
fellow. You are a great man!" Then comes the test of the man. How few
there are that can endure the warm atmosphere of congratulation! It is
dangerously relaxing to the spirit. Yes, nobody can keep himself right
under it, unless the almighty Grace of God shall sustain his

faith.

When the soft winds blow they bring with them the temptation, "Now
preach the doctrines that tickle men's ears!" "Go in to be scientific
and learned and clever! Get the approbation of the great ones of the
world and the leaders of advanced thought in the Church." And unless
you say, "Get you behind me, Satan: for you savor not the things that
are of God," such a trial of faith may be too much for you. "Oh," says
one, "that will not fall to my lot." No, no. You will not be a popular
preacher, perhaps. But then, you may be very acceptable in the company
wherein you move and worldly people may flatter you to the verge of
ruin.

You sing very nicely, do you not? Well, they may want you to sing them
a song that is not one of the songs of Zion. Because of your natural
attainments and the amiability of your temper, you may become a great
favorite with ungodly people. And that is an intense trial to the faith
of a child of God. The friendship of the world is as much enmity with
God as it used to be in Apostolic times. It is a bad sign when a
courtier is in great favor with the king's enemies. Stand up and stand
out as the servant of God and in whatever sphere you move, make it your
one and only business to serve your God, whether you offend or please.
Happy shall you be if you survive the trial of your faith which this
will involve!

Another trial of faith is exceedingly common and perilous nowadays and
that is heretical doctrine and false teaching. There are some who are
carried away with this wind of doctrine and others carried away with
the other–and blessed is he who is not offended in Christ. For,
naturally, the Cross of Christ is offensive to the minds of men. There
are temptations that rise out of the Gospel itself, yes, out of its
very depth and breadth. There is a trial of faith in reading the
Scriptures. You come across a doctrine which you cannot understand and
because you cannot understand it, you are tempted not to receive it.
Or, when a Truth which you have received appears to be hard and speaks
to you in an unlovely fashion, so that your natural feelings are
aroused against it–this is a trial of your faith.

Remember how our Lord Jesus lost quite a company of disciples on a
certain occasion. He had taught a doctrine about eating His flesh and
drinking His blood. And from that hour many went back and walked no
more with Him, till the Savior had to say, even to the twelve, "Will
you also go away?" Truth is not always welcome to our ignorance–or to
our preju-dice–and herein is a trial of faith. Will we believe
ourselves or our God? Do we want to believe God's Truth, or do we wish
to have the Lord's message flavored to our taste? Do we expect the
preacher to play our chosen tunes and speak our opinions?

Beloved, it does us good to be well rasped sometimes. To have a word
come to us, not as a sweet wine but as a purging medicine that shall
search us through and through and make us enquire before God, "Are we
true men, or are we aliens?" If we run in the same line with God's
Truth, we are true. But when we run counter to the Truth of God, we are
ourselves untrue. It is not the Book that is to be altered–our hearts
need altering. Happy is that man whose faith can endure the trial of
the Book. "Is not the Word of the Lord like a fire or a hammer?" This
is so even to the Lord's own people.

But the trial of our faith usually comes in the form of affliction. Our
jealous Lover uses tests that it may be seen whether he has our heart.
The trial of your faith comes thus–You say, "Lord Jesus, I love you.
You are my best Beloved." "Well," says the heavenly Lover, "if it is
so, then the child that nestles in your bosom will sicken and die. What
will you say then?" If

you are indeed true in what you have stated concerning your supreme
love to Jesus, you will give up your darling at His call and say, "The
Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the
Lord."

The Lord is very jealous of our love. I do not mean that He is so
towards all of you–I speak of His own people. The more He loves us,
the more He tests us. Whatever it may be with us poor creatures, it is
always so with Jesus, that His love goes with His jealousy and His
jealousy with His love. Sometimes He says, "Good woman, I shall take
away your husband, on whom you lean, that you may lean the more on Me."
I remember Mr. Rutherford, writing to a lady who had lost five children
and her husband, said to her, "Oh, how Christ must love you! He would
take every bit of your heart to Himself. He would not permit you to
reserve any of your soul for any earthly thing." Can we stand that
test? Can we let all go for His sake? Do you answer that you can? Time
will show.

My Lord sometimes comes to me in this fashion. He says, "I have made
you to trust Me these many years. I have supplied the wants of your
work by liberal friends. I am about to remove a generous helper." I go
to the grave of my friend and the suggestion dogs me, "Who is to
provide for the Orphanage and the College, after other dear Friends are
buried? Can you trust God then?" Blessed be the name of the Lord, this
fiery trial has never even left the smell of fire upon me. I know whom
I have believed.

Then a dear Brother, our best worker, our heartiest helper, comes to me
and says, "Goodbye, dear Pastor. Perhaps I may never see you again on
earth." He is very ill and about to lie under the surgeon's knife and
the fear is that he may not rally. I go home and say to myself, "What
shall I do without this useful man?" And then I have to say, "Do? Do
what I have done before–trust in the living God." If you once get to
walk the walk of faith, the Lord will often try you in this way, to see
whether you come up to your own confession–whether you really trust in
the Lord and have your expectation from Him alone. Can you truly say–

"Yes, should You take them all away, Yet would I not repine"?

If every earthly prop were knocked away, could you stand by the lone
power of your foundation? God may not send you this or that trial but
He will send you a sufficient amount of trials to let you see whether
your faith is truth or talk, whether you have truly entered the
spiritual world, or have only dreamed of doing so. Believe me, there is
a great difference between a diamond and a paste gem. So, you see, the
trials of faith are very varied.

III. In the third place, YOUR FAITH WILL BE TRIED INDIVIDUALLY. The
text says, the trial of your faith. O dear Friend, it is an interesting
subject, is it not, the trial of faith? It is not quite so pleasant to
study alone the trial of your faith. It is stern work when it comes to
be your trial and the trial of your faith. You have not gone much into
that particular department, perhaps. Well, I say again, do not wish to
do so. Do not ask for trials. Children must not ask to be whipped, nor
saints pray to be tested. There is a little book which you will have to
eat and it will be bitter in your mouth, but sweet in your
stomach–that book is the trial of your faith.

The Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified by the trial of His people's
faith. He has to be glorified by the trial of your faith. You are very
obscure, perhaps, dear Brother. You have but few talents, my dear
Sister. But, nevertheless, there is a particular shape and form of
trial that will have to be exercised upon you rather than upon anyone
else. "Oh," say you, "I know it, Sir. I know it." Well, then, if you
know it, do not complain of it. Because when you have your own trial
and the trial of your own faith, you are only treated like the rest of
the family. What son is there whom the father chastens not?

You are only treated like the Head of the family. You are only treated
in the way which the great Father of the family knows is necessary for
us all. God had one Son without sin but He never had a son without
trial and He never will have until He has taken us all Home out of this
world. Why should we expect that God should deal better with us than He
does with the rest of His chosen? Indeed, it would not be better, after
all, because these trials are the means of working out our lasting
good. But if it were not so, who am I, and who are you, that God should
pamper us?

Would we have Him put us in a glass case and shield us from the trials
which are common to all the chosen seed? I ask no such portion. Let me
fare as the saints fare. I only wish to have their bread and their
water and love their Father and follow their Guide and find their home.
We will take our meals with them, whatever God puts upon the table for
them, will we not? The trial of our faith will be all our own and yet
it will be in fellowship with all the family of grace.

IV. YOUR FAITH WILL BE TRIED SEARCHINGLY. It will be no child's play to
come under the Divine tests. Our faith is not merely jingled on the
counter like the shilling which the tradesman suspects but it is tried
with fire. For so it is written, "I have chosen you in the furnace of
affliction." The blows of the trial of tribulation are not given in
sport but in awful earnest, as some of us know who have been chastened
sorely, almost unto death. The Lord tries the very life of our faith.

Not its beauty and its strength alone but its very existence. The iron
enters into the soul. The sharp medicine searches the inmost parts of
the belly. The man's real self is made to endure the trial. It is easy
to talk of being tried but it is by no means so simple a matter to
endure the ordeal.

V. Let me yet further observe, that YOUR FAITH WILL BE TRIED FOR AN
ABUNDANTLY USEFUL PURPOSE.

The trial of your faith will increase, develop, deepen and strengthen
it. "Oh," you have said, "I wish I had more faith." Your prayer will be
heard through your having more trial.

Often in our prayers we have sought for a stronger faith to look within
the veil. The way to stronger faith usually lies along the rough
pathway of sorrow. Only as faith is contested, will faith be confirmed.
I do not know whether my experience is that of all God's people. But I
am afraid that all the Divine Grace that I have got out of my
comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a
penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows and pains and
griefs, is altogether incalculable. What do I not owe to the hammer and
the anvil, the fire and the file? What do I not owe to the crucible and
the furnace, the bellows that have blown up the coals and the hand
which has thrust me into the heat?

Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best
book in a minister's library. We may wisely rejoice in tribulation
because it works patience, and patience, experience, and experience,
hope. And by that way we are exceedingly enriched and our faith grows
strong.

The trial of our faith is useful, not only because it strengthens it
but because it leads to a discovery of our faith to ourselves. I notice
an old Puritan using this illustration. He says you shall go into a
wood when you please but if you are very quiet, you will not know
whether there is a partridge, or a pheasant, or a rabbit in it. But
when you begin to move about, or make a noise, you very soon see the
living creatures. They rise or they run. So, when affliction comes into
the soul and makes a disturbance and breaks our peace, up rise our
graces. Faith comes out of its hiding and love leaps from its secret
place.

I remember Mr. William Jay saying that birds' nests are hard to find in
summertime but anyone could find a bird's nest in winter. When all the
leaves are off the trees the nests are visible to all. Often in the
days of our prosperity, we fail to find our faith. But when our
adversity comes, the winter of our trial bares the boughs and we see
our faith at once. We are sure that we believe now, for we feel the
effect of faith upon our character. "Before I was afflicted I went
astray," said David, "but now have I kept Your Word." He found that his
faith was really there by his keeping God's Word in the time of his
affliction. It is a great mercy, then, to have your faith tried, that
you may be sure beyond all manner of question that you are a true
Believer.

Besides, when faith is tried it brings God glory. Oh, how it honors God
when a man can say with a smiling face in prospect of death, "Good-bye,
dear Sir, I may never see you here again but we shall meet above!" We
who are in health envy the Brother who has such joy amid sharp pain. I
went the other day to see a dear Brother who has since then gone above.
He was swollen with dropsy and was close to the brink of the grave. But
to hear the song of assurance and the utterances of his joy was most
sweet and cheering. It made me feel how good God is to His servants. He
never leaves nor forsakes them when they come to their most painful
times.

This trial of our faith does good to our fellow Christians. They see
how we are supported and they learn to bear their troubles bravely. I
do not know anything that is better for making us brave than to see
others believe in Christ and bear up manfully. To see that blind saint
so happy makes us ashamed to be sad. To see content in an inmate of the
work-house compels us to be thankful. Sufferers are our tutors. They
educate us for the skies. When men of God can suffer–when they can
bear poverty, bereavement or sickness and still rejoice in God–we
learn the way to live the higher and more Christ-like life.

When Patrick Hamilton had been burned in Scotland, one said to his
persecutors, "If you are going to burn any more, you had better do it
in a cellar, for the smoke of Hamilton's burning has opened the eyes of
hundreds." It was always so. Suffering saints are living seed. Oh, that
God might help us to such faith that when we come to suffer in life, or
to expire in death, we may so glorify God that others may believe in
Him! May we preach sermons by our faith which shall be better than
sermons in words.

My time has gone and I have much to say to you. I wanted to say to you
about the trial of your faith, dear Friends, that SOME ARE TRIED VERY
SPECIALLY. Some endure many more tests than others and that is because
God has a great favor to them. Many men God does not love well enough
to whip them. They are the devil's children and the heavenly Father
does not trouble them. They are none of His and so He lets them have a
happy life and perhaps an easy death–"there are no bands in their
death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other
men, neither are they plagued like other men."

But they are to be pitied and not envied. Woe unto you that laugh now,
for you shall weep! Woe unto you who have your portion in this life for
it shall go ill with you in the world to come! God's children are often
much chastened because they are

much loved. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Men take most
trouble with that which is most precious. A common pebble will be let
alone but a diamond must be fretted on the wheel till its brilliance is
displayed.

Some persons are also much tried in their faith because they are very
fit for it. God has fitted the back for a heavy burden and the burden
will be sent. He has constituted them on purpose that they should be
helpful in filling up "that which is behind of the afflictions of
Christ, for His body's sake, which is the Church." Men build strong
columns because they are meant to carry great weights. So God makes
great Christians on purpose that they should bear great afflictions for
His Glory.

He does this also because He would have some men do Him a special
service. What an honor it is to do the Lord a special service! When
some man in our army behaves himself very grandly and wins a battle,
what will her Majesty do? Why, she will send for him next time a war
arises. If any of you are brave in bearing affliction, you shall have
the honor of enduring more affliction. Does not every soldier court the
opportunity of service? He that looks over his soldiers says of a
certain one, "I shall not send him–he is feeble and faint-hearted.
Yonder veteran is the man for me."

Do not think that you would be honored by being allowed to ride to
Heaven on a feather bed. True honor lies in being permitted to bear and
suffer side by side with Him of the bloody sweat and of the five open
wounds. This is the reward of the saints–that they should on earth be
decorated with–

"Many a sorrow, many a tear." They shall walk with their Lord in white,
for they are worthy.

Yes, dear Friends, the Lord often sends us greater trials than others
because He means to qualify us for greater enjoyments. If you want to
make a pool capable of holding more water, you dig it out, do you not?
And many a man has been dug and enlarged by affliction. The
enlargements of trial enable us to hold more Divine Grace and more
glory. The more a gracious man suffers, the more he becomes capable of
entering into fellowship with Christ in His sufferings and so into
fellowship with Christ in His Glory by-and-by.

Come, let us be comforted as to the trial of our faith. There is no
hurt in it. It is all for good. The trial of our faith is entirely in
the hands of God. Nobody can try us without God's permission. He will
try us just as much as we ought to be tried and no more. While He tries
us with one hand He will sustain us with the other. If He gives us
bitters, He will give us sweets in full proportion. A dear Sister said
to me this week, "When I used to be in poverty and in trouble, the Word
of God was much more sweet to me than it is now that I am prospered."

I do not wonder at it. I have made a similar remark when I have been
long without an illness. Some of us have cried, "Take me back to my
sickness again. Take me back to slander and rebuke again." A Scotch
saint said that when they met in the moss, or by the hillside, and were
harried by Claverhouse and his dragoons, Christ was present at the
sacraments in the heather much more than He ever was afterwards when
they got into their Church and sat down quietly. Our worst days are
often our best days and in the dark we see stars that we never saw in
the light. So we will not care a pin what it is that may befall us
here, so long as God is with us and our faith in Him is genuine.

Christian people, I am not going to sympathize with you but
congratulate you upon your troubles, for the Cross of Christ is
precious. But you that do not love my Lord and Master, if you roll in
riches, if your eyes stand out with fatness, I mourn over you. Bullocks
fattened for the slaughter, your joys are but the prelude to your woes.
Oh, that God would have mercy upon you and that you would have mercy
upon yourselves and flee at once to Jesus and put your trust in Him!
Faith in the work, offices and Person of the Lord Jesus is the way of
salvation. May He help you to run in it at this hour, for His name's
sake! Amen.

LETTER FROM MR. SPURGEON.

DEAR FRIENDS–In answer to a general desire that I should let my
beloved Readers know of my condition, I will write a line or two each
week. Owing to extreme weakness it has taken me the whole week to reach
my sunny retreat but at each stage I have found myself a little better
and I can now walk a little–a very little. Yet for this I am deeply
grateful to Him "who restores our life." I hope, by rest in this genial
climate, to recover tone, strength and freshness of mind and then I
trust all will be spent, in future days, for God's glory.

Through the blessing of God upon the labors of Messrs. Fullerton and
Smith a cheering work is going on at the Tabernacle. I beg my readers
to pray that the Lord may be glorified among the people in the absence
of the usual worker and that the printed sermons may speak with power
when the preacher himself is silent. Yours, dear Friends, in Christ
Jesus, C. H. Spurgeon.

Mentone, Nov. 24, 1888.