March 8 | Morning

0:00March 8th, morning. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Acts 14, verse 22. God's people have their trials. It was never God's plan when He chose His people, that they should be untested. They were chosen in the furnace of affliction. They were never chosen for worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised to them, but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, He included chastisements among the things to which they should inevitably be airs. Trials are a part of our experience. They were predestinated for us in Christ's last legacy. As surely as the stars are fashioned by His hands, and their orbits fixed by Him, so

1:06surely are our trials allotted to us. He has ordained their season and their place, their intensity and the effect they shall have upon us. Good men must never expect to escape troubles. If they do, they will be disappointed. But none of their predecessors have been without them. Consider the patience of Job. Remember Abraham, for he had his trials, and facing them with faith, he became the father of the faithful. Review the biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs, and you will find that each of those whom God made vessels of mercy were made to pass through the fire of affliction. God has ordained that the cross of trouble should be engraved on every vessel of mercy. As the royal insignia, distinguishing the king's vessels of honor, but even though the tribulation is the path of God's children, they have the comfort of knowing that their

2:08master has walked it before them. They have His presence and sympathy to cheer them, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to endure, and when they reach the kingdom, it will more than make amends for the many tribulations through which they passed to enter it.