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An irrevocable loss!
(Octavius Winslow, "Spiritual Diligence")
The loss of an affliction or a trial, is an
irrevocable loss! It cannot be repaired.
There was a necessary reason for the 'rod of
correction' with which our Heavenly Father visited us....
some sin to be removed, or
some backsliding to be restored, or
some evil to be checked, or
some lesson to be learned, or
some blessing to be bestowed.
If, then, we are not diligent in seeking a
sanctified possession of the discipline,
earnest in securing the end for which our
God chastened us, we have lost the mission
and the blessing for which it was sent; and
O how great and irreparable that loss!
Let us, then, see that we lose not one of our
sorrows; they are too precious and valuable to
be lost; but that we turn them all to a good
account; diligent to extract some sweet thing
from the bitter, some nourishing thing from
the eater, and to find a penciling of light in
the somberest cloud.
Let us see that under the afflictive hand of
God we become more humble, more spiritually
minded, more dead to the world, more prayerful,
more Christlike, and Christ more precious; in a
word, made by our Father's corrections more
"a partaker of the Divine holiness."
O hallowed fruit of sanctified sorrow!
No tongue can adequately describe the costly,
sacred blessings flowing from one hallowed sorrow.
We have, perhaps, become more intimately
acquainted with the character of God, more
experimentally know the Lord Jesus Christ,
and more spiritually understand the meaning
of God's holy Word, in one sanctified affliction,
than we ever attained to in all our previous history!
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