God's chisel!

(John MacDuff, "The Night Dream of the Desert")

God deals in love with all His spiritual children.

The rod is required in some, more than in others . . .
  to subdue the defiant and obdurate will,
  to put an end to all schemings and compromise,
  and gain the heart to an unconditional surrender.

The Divine Sculptor, with each successive stroke of the chisel, has the great end in view of bringing out His own image in the soul, and deepening in it His love of goodness, truth, purity, and kindness.

And while not one stroke of that chisel is an unnecessary one, He will not cease His work until the spiritual marble has been fashioned so as to reach perfectly and forever, His own image!