said the astonished artist. "I fear your Majesty is not acquainted with
the laws of light and beauty. There can be no good portrait without
shading." No more can there be a good Salvationist without trial and
sorrow and storm. There might, perhaps, remain a stunted and unfruitful
infant life--but a _man_ in Christ Jesus, a _Soldier_ of the
Cross, a _leader_ of God's people, without tribulation _there can
never be_. Patience, experience, faith, hope, love, if they do not
actually grow from tribulations, are helped by them in their growth. For
what says the Apostle? "Tribulation worketh patience, and patience
experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed."

The finest pine-trees grow in the stormiest lands. The tempests make them
strong. Surgeons tell us that their greatest triumphs are often those in
which the patients have suffered most at their hands--for every stroke of
the knife is to heal. The child you most truly love is the one you most
anxiously correct, and "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." Oh, _do_
believe that by every blow of disappointment and sorrow He permits to fall
upon you, He is striving to bring you to the measure of the stature of a
man in Christ Jesus. _Do_ work with Him in the full knowledge that He
will not forsake you. He, the Man who has penetrated to the heart of
every form of sorrow, and left a blessing there; He who has watched in
silence by every kind of earthly grief, and found its antidote: the Man
who trod the wine-press alone--He will be with you.

And, since He is with you, see to it you acquit yourself well in His
presence. It is related of an old Highland chief that when advancing to
give battle he fell at the head of his clan, pierced by two balls from the
foe. His men saw him fall, and began to waver. But their wounded captain
instantly raised himself on his elbow, and, with blood streaming from his
wounds, exclaimed, "Children, I am not dead; _I am looking to see if you