![]() ![]() The fact of this eminent prayerfulness of Jesus is a lesson for us-he hath given us an example that we may follow in his steps. If ever one of woman born might have lived without prayer, it was our spotless, perfect Lord, and yet none was ever so much in supplication as he! Such was his love to his Father, that he loved much to be in communion with him: such his love for his people, that he desired to be much in intercession for them. "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." ![]() Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have praise him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto you have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have more and more of the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove mountains and conquer impossibilities. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the full portion will be measured out to you in due season. Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too. ![]() Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. You could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers and you would never have known God's strength had you not been supported amid the water-floods. No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier no stars gleam so brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky no water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Let the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway towards her desired haven. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its harbour for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. ![]()
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