The Rough Stalk of Suffering

J.R. Miller 90x115by J.R. Miller

"These are those who have come out of the great tribulation!" Revelation 7:14

Much of the most beautiful Christian living in this world, comes out of sorrow. As "fair flowers bloom upon rough stalks"–so many of the fairest flowers of human life, grow upon the rough stalk of suffering.

We take our place with the beloved disciple John on the other side, and we see that those who in Heaven wear the whitest robes, and sing the loudest songs of victory–are those who have come out of "great tribulation". Heaven’s highest places are filling, not from earth’s homes of glad festivity and tearless joy–but from . . . its chambers of pain, its valleys of struggle where the battle is hard, and its scenes of sorrow, where pale cheeks are wet with tears, and where hearts are broken.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all!" 2 Corinthians 4:17

by J.R. Miller

February 7th, 2013

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Man’s Treatment of God’s People

James Smith 90x115by James Smith

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you!" John 15:18-19

Such is the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Real Christians have never been favorites of the world—and while it continues what it is, they never can be.

"Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you." 1 John 3:13

Nor can the pure and simple gospel be pleasant to the world, because it lays the sinner in the dust, and exalts God as supreme and sovereign. Let us not be surprised then, if we hear worldlings speak against the gospel, and traduce the Lord’s people; for what the Romans told Paul is in a good measure true in the present day,

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