九月十二日
经文: 我要歌唱慈爱和公平。（诗篇一○一：1）
在试炼中，信心必能得胜。当“道理”被掷入内牢时，信心仍能使地牢之墙唱出喜乐之歌。她说：“我要歌唱慈爱和公平。耶和华阿，我要向祢歌颂。”信心将困难脸上的黑面具扯下，发现了面具底下的天使。即使当上帝审判我们的时候，我们仍有理由可以歌唱，因为试炼并不如它所应有的沉重，困难不如我们配去经历般的严重，苦难也不如其他人所背负的重担那般令人难担。信心教人明白责罚并不是上帝加给他的惩罚，因为在其中没有上帝的一丝震怒，每一责备皆是出自爱。信心在愤怒之上帝的胸怀中看见爱就像宝石一样，闪烁光辉。信心说出她的忧伤，他说：“这是荣耀的记号，因为儿女必须经历管教的杖。”接着，他能唱出忧伤后的甜美结果，因为受伤带来属灵的好处，“我们这至暂至轻的苦楚，要为我们成就极重无比永远的荣耀。”（林后四：17）信心如同骑士骑着马前进，践踏属肉体的意念和感情，在战争中高唱凯歌。
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Evening, September 12
Scripture: “I will sing of mercy and judgment.”(Psalm 101:1)
Faith triumphs in trial. When reason is thrust into the inner prison, with her feet made fast in the stocks, faith makes the dungeon walls ring with her merry notes as she cries, “I will sing of mercy and of judgment. Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.” Faith pulls the black mask from the face of trouble, and discovers the angel beneath. Faith looks up at the cloud, and sees that
“'Tis big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on her head.”
There is a subject for song even in the judgments of God towards us. For, first, the trial is not so heavy as it might have been; next, the trouble is not so severe as we deserved to have borne; and our affliction is not so crushing as the burden which others have to carry. Faith sees that in her worst sorrow there is nothing penal; there is not a drop of God's wrath in it; it is all sent in love. Faith discerns love gleaming like a jewel on the breast of an angry God. Faith says of her grief, “This is a badge of honour, for the child must feel the rod”; and then she sings of the sweet result of her sorrows, because they work her spiritual good. Nay, more, says Faith, “These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” So Faith rides forth on the black horse, conquering and to conquer, trampling down carnal reason and fleshly sense, and chanting notes of victory amid the thickest of the fray.
“All I meet I find assists me
In my path to heavenly joy:
Where, though trials now attend me,
Trials never more annoy.
“Blest there with a weight of glory,
Still the path I'll ne'er forget,
But, exulting, cry, it led me
To my blessed Saviour's seat.”