“只因你们不属世界…世界就恨你们。”（约15章19节）
基督徒的生活是一种定罪的生活，基督徒所作的，常定不信者所不作的罪；基督徒所不作的，常定不信者所作的罪。譬如，当人请你加入赌博时，你说你是基督徒，不能这么作，你在无意之中扎了他的心。当人看见你亲近神，和世界分别，你又在不知不觉间使人不快。
所以一个正式的基督徒，决不能被世人所欢迎，他受世人的厌弃和逼迫是最自然的事。
当世界拥护你，高抬你，向你献媚，向你恭维的时候，你必是已经失去你的见证，和世界调和了；或者卖掉你所持守的真理，与仇敌妥协了。古圣中有一位常说这句话：“我有什么事做错了，以致他这么称赞我。”
“亲爱的阿，有火炼的试验临到你们，不要以为奇怪。”（彼前4章12节）
In everything ye are enriched by him (1 Cor. 1:5).
Have you ever seen men and women whom some disaster drove to a great act of prayer, and by and by the disaster was forgotten, but the sweetness of religion remained and warmed their souls?
So have I seen a storm in later spring; and all was black, save where the lightning tore the cloud with thundering rent.
The winds blew and the rains fell, as though heaven had opened its windows. What a devastation there was! Not a spider’s web that was out of doors escaped the storm, which tore up even the strong-branched oak.
But ere long the lightning had gone by, the thunder was spent and silent, the rain was over, the western wind came up with its sweet breath, the clouds were chased away, and the retreating storm threw a scarf of rainbows over her fair shoulders and resplendent neck, and looked back and smiled, and so withdrew and passed out of sight.
But for weeks long the fields held up their bands full of ambrosial flowers, and all the summer through the grass was greener, the brooks were fuller, and the trees cast a more umbrageous shade, because the storm passed by–though all the rest of the earth had long ago forgotten the storm, its rainbows and its rain.
–Theodore Parker
God may not give us an easy journey to the Promised Land, but He will give us a safe one.
–Bonar
It was a storm that occasioned the discovery of the gold mines of India. Hath not a storm driven some to the discovery of the richer mines of the love of God in Christ?
Is it raining, little flower?
Be glad of rain;
Too much sun would wither thee;
‘Twill shine again.
The clouds are very black, ’tis true;
But just behind them shines the blue.
Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain:
In sorrow sweetest virtues grow,
As flowers in rain.
God watches, and thou wilt have sun,
When clouds their perfect work have done.
–Lucy Larcom
基督徒的生活是一种定罪的生活，基督徒所作的，常定不信者所不作的罪；基督徒所不作的，常定不信者所作的罪。譬如，当人请你加入赌博时，你说你是基督徒，不能这么作，你在无意之中扎了他的心。当人看见你亲近神，和世界分别，你又在不知不觉间使人不快。
所以一个正式的基督徒，决不能被世人所欢迎，他受世人的厌弃和逼迫是最自然的事。
当世界拥护你，高抬你，向你献媚，向你恭维的时候，你必是已经失去你的见证，和世界调和了；或者卖掉你所持守的真理，与仇敌妥协了。古圣中有一位常说这句话：“我有什么事做错了，以致他这么称赞我。”
“亲爱的阿，有火炼的试验临到你们，不要以为奇怪。”（彼前4章12节）
In everything ye are enriched by him (1 Cor. 1:5).
Have you ever seen men and women whom some disaster drove to a great act of prayer, and by and by the disaster was forgotten, but the sweetness of religion remained and warmed their souls?
So have I seen a storm in later spring; and all was black, save where the lightning tore the cloud with thundering rent.
The winds blew and the rains fell, as though heaven had opened its windows. What a devastation there was! Not a spider’s web that was out of doors escaped the storm, which tore up even the strong-branched oak.
But ere long the lightning had gone by, the thunder was spent and silent, the rain was over, the western wind came up with its sweet breath, the clouds were chased away, and the retreating storm threw a scarf of rainbows over her fair shoulders and resplendent neck, and looked back and smiled, and so withdrew and passed out of sight.
But for weeks long the fields held up their bands full of ambrosial flowers, and all the summer through the grass was greener, the brooks were fuller, and the trees cast a more umbrageous shade, because the storm passed by–though all the rest of the earth had long ago forgotten the storm, its rainbows and its rain.
–Theodore Parker
God may not give us an easy journey to the Promised Land, but He will give us a safe one.
–Bonar
It was a storm that occasioned the discovery of the gold mines of India. Hath not a storm driven some to the discovery of the richer mines of the love of God in Christ?
Is it raining, little flower?
Be glad of rain;
Too much sun would wither thee;
‘Twill shine again.
The clouds are very black, ’tis true;
But just behind them shines the blue.
Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain:
In sorrow sweetest virtues grow,
As flowers in rain.
God watches, and thou wilt have sun,
When clouds their perfect work have done.
–Lucy Larcom