在這裡有一件值得注意的事情：最鮮豔的花草是生長在荒野的高山上的。最鮮明的苔蘚、最美麗的野花，都長在荒涼光禿的高峰巔上。 我個人所看見的最豔麗的顏色是在一個一萬尺高的山頂上。山面長滿了金黃色的苔蘚，在日光下閃耀，非常美麗奪目。 你看，在那樣高的地方，那樣荒涼的地方，苔蘚受盡狂風暴雨的擊打，反呈露出這樣燦爛的顏色來，豈不奇怪？我有兩個苔蘚的標本，一個是從高山上採集來的，一個是從城牆上篨懸樹中採集來的；這兩個標本是的形狀和顏色，有極顯著的不同。 生長在山顚上風雨中的那個標本是櫻紅色的，質地光滑，輪廓完美；生長在低地上溫氣中的那個標本是暗黑色的，質地粗糙，輪廓破碎。 受苦的信徒阿，你不是受盡了風雨的摧殘嗎？你不是失盡了所有的安慰嗎？神預備了風雨一次一次擊打你，叫你的外貌變得毀損陰沉；但是試煉一過，黑暗就要變成光明，你就要得到非常的祝福。━選"It is good for me that I have been afflicted" (Ps. 119:71)It is a remarkable circumstance that the most brilliant colors of plants are to be seen on the highest mountains, in spots that are most exposed to the wildest weather. The brightest lichens and mosses, the loveliest gems of wild flowers, abound far up on the bleak, storm-scalped peak. One of the richest displays of organic coloring I ever beheld was near the summit of Mount Chenebettaz, a hill about 10,000 feet high, immediately above the great St. Bernard Hospice. The whole face of an extensive rock was covered with a most vivid yellow lichen which shone in the sunshine like the golden battlement of an enchanted castle.There, in that lofty region, amid the most frowning desolation, exposed to the fiercest tempest of the sky, this lichen exhibited a glory of color such as it never showed in the sheltered valley. I have two specimens of the same lichen before me while I write these lines, one from the great St. Bernard, and the other from the wall of a Scottish castle, deeply embossed among sycamore trees; and the difference in point of form and coloring between them is most striking. The specimen nurtured amid the wild storms of the mountain peak is of a lovely primrose hue, and is smooth in texture and complete in outline, while the specimen nurtured amid the soft airs and the delicate showers of the lowland valley is of a dim rusty hue, and is scurfy in texture, and broken in outline. And is it not so with the Christian who is afflicted, tempest-tossed, and not comforted? Till the storms and vicissitudes of God's providence beat upon him again and again, his character appears marred and clouded; but trials clear away the obscurity, perfect the outlines of his disposition, and give brightness and blessing to his life. ━selected Amidst my list of blessings infinte,Stands this the foremost, that my heart has bled;For all I bless Thee, most for the severe. 「又如鷹攪動巢窩，在雛鷹以上兩翅搧展，接取雛鷹，背在兩翼之上，這樣，耶和華獨自引導他，並無外邦神與他同在。」（申卅二11-12） 我們全能的父常喜歡將祂保護下的雛鷹引到絕壁頂上，推他們下去，好使他們知道自己有飛行的能力；倘使，他們遭到了危險，祂便立即猝然下降，把他們背在兩翼之上。所以，信徒阿，神如果把我們放在一個非常困難的地位上，我們只要大膽依賴祂，因為我們深信祂的拯救就在旁邊。－－譯自勝利的凱歌 甚麼時候神放一個重擔在你上面，祂必放祂自己的膀臂在你下面。有一株小花生，長在一棵高大的橡樹蔭下，這株小花非常尊重那庇護它的樹蔭，也非常寶貴它所享受的安靜。不久，來了一個樵夫，把橡樹砍了去。小花非常傷心哭道：「啊，我的保護失去了；從此狂風會把我吹倒，大雨會把我打倒！」小花的天使安慰它道：「不，不，太陽會照耀你，甘霖會滋潤你；你弱小的身軀將長得更加可愛，你張開的花瓣將歡笑於日光之下；人們也會稱讚你說：『這株小花長得多快啊！橡樹砍去以後，長得更其美麗了！』」 親愛的讀者，你不看見嗎？神挪去你的安慰、你的利益，為要叫你長得更美麗。神訓練祂的精兵，不能在柔軟的床上訓練，祂必須領他們出去，強迫他們行軍，強迫他們服役；使他們涉河、遊江、攀山、負荷。這樣，才能把他們練成精兵━並不是給他們穿上精緻的軍服，叫他們在營門前高視闊步，也不是叫他們在公園裡閒蕩逍遙。神知道精兵是在戰爭中造成的，不是在平安中造成的。他們必須飽嘗火藥氣味，飽經槍林彈雨。信徒阿！你的神要把你造成一個精兵，你願不願意呢？祂把你投在戰爭的火焰中，你豈不該穿上祂給你的全副軍裝來運用祂的得勝呢－－司布眞"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him" (Deut. 32:11, 12)Our Almighty Parent delights to conduct the tender nestlings of His care to the very edge of the precipice, and even to thrust them off into the steeps of air, that they may learn their possession of unrealized power of flight, to be forever a luxury; and if, in the attempt, they be exposed to unwonted peril, He is prepared to swoop beneath them, and to bear them upward on His mighty pinions. When God brings any of His children into a position of unparalleled difficulty, they may always count upon Him to deliver them. --The Song of Victory "When God puts a burden upon you He puts His own arm underneath." There is a little plant, small and stunted, growing under the shade of a broad-spreading oak; and this little plant values the shade which covers it, and greatly does it esteem the quiet rest which its noble friend affords. But a blessing is designed for this little plant. Once upon a time there comes along the woodman, and with his sharp axe he fells the oak. The plant weeps and cries, "My shelter is departed; every rough wind will blow upon me, and every storm will seek to uproot me!" "No, no," saith the angel of that flower; "now will the sun get at thee; now will the shower fall on thee in more copious abundance than before; now thy stunted form shall spring up into loveliness, and thy flower, which could never have expanded itself to perfection shall now laugh in the sunshine, and men shall say, 'How greatly hath that plant increased! How glorious hath become its beauty, through the removal of that which was its shade and its delight!'" See you not, then, that God may take away your comforts and your privileges, to make you the better Christians? Why, the Lord always trains His soldiers, not by letting them lie on feather-beds, but by turning them out, and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many a long march with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on their backs. This is the way in which He makes them soldiers--not by dressing them up in fine uniforms, to swagger at the barrack gates, and to be fine gentlemen in the eyes of the loungers in the park. God knows that soldiers are only to be made in battle; they are not to be grown in peaceful times. We may grow the stuff of which soldiers are made; but warriors are really educated by the smell of powder, in the midst of whizzing bullets and roaring cannonades, not in soft and peaceful times. Well, Christian, may not this account for it all? Is not thy Lord bringing out thy graces and making them grow? Is He not developing in you the qualities of the soldier by throwing you into the heat of battle, and should you not use every appliance to come off conqueror? --Spurgeon.