July 26

"Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Lord, and teach him out of your law." Psalm 94:12

That there is a present partial understanding of God's will and ways concerning us we readily concede. We may, now and then, see a needs-be for His conduct. The veil is just sufficiently lifted to reveal a portion of the "end of the Lord." He will make us acquainted with the evil which He corrects, with the backsliding which He chastens, with the temptation which He checks, and with the dangerous path around which He throws his hedge; so that we cannot escape. We see it, and we bless the hand outstretched to save. He will also cause us to be fruitful. We have mourned our leanness, have confessed our barrenness, and lamented the distance of our walk, and the little glory we bring to His dear name–and lo! the dresser of the vineyard has appeared to prune His sickly branch, "that it may bring forth more fruit." "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin." The deeper teaching, too–the result of the Divine chastenings–has revealed to some extent the "end of the Lord" in His mysterious conduct. Oh, there is no school like God's school; for "who teaches like Him?" And God's highest school is the school of trial. All his true scholars have graduated from this: "Who are these which are arrayed in white robes? and where came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Ask each spiritually, deeply taught Christian where he attained his knowledge, and he will point you to God's great university–the school of trial.