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經文：「憂愁強如喜笑，因為面帶愁容終必使心喜樂。」（傳7:3） 在神的恩典下有時也會有憂愁臨到，成為我們生命的益處。憂愁不是掛慮，憂愁會帶領我們進入更深的層次。終日嘻鬧，常是淺薄。 憂愁是神的犛頭，掘到土的深處地就多結果子。如果我們未曾墮落過，就不需要憂愁；只需要屬天的喜樂鼓勵我們進入更深。可是我們確曾墮落過，因此需要憂愁；帶領我們省察、痛悔、認識自己。所以憂愁常使我們多思想多考慮。 憂愁也使我們不急躁，認準動機和目標。憂愁可以從我們的內心啓發天堂生活；使我們願意施展我們的力量，對神和人類作無窮的服務。 我們不妨想像：有群懶惰的人住在山嶺之下，他們從未探索山中的峽谷與岩穴。某天一場大雷雨橫掃這山嶺，在那些峽谷與岩穴間呼嘯回蕩聲若擂鼓，揭露出山谷內部的深奧幽秘，彷彿盤旋曲折的巨大螺殼。 然後這住在山麓的居民，對於這近在咫尺，卻從未接觸又素不熟悉的迷音大感驚異。對於那些生活只在人性浮面，並得過且過的人也是如此；需要等到受了大雷雨似的打擊，才能窺見靈魂的深奧。 凡是被神大用的人，都受過憂愁。因為神若不將他擘開，就不能使用他。約瑟比雅各其餘的兒子憂愁更多；神用他拯救以色列全家和眾民族。因此神說：「約瑟是多結果子的樹枝，是泉旁多結果的枝子，他的枝條探出牆外。」（創49:22）大衛和保羅也是如此經歷過許多憂愁。基督為了我們的緣故亦嘗過憂愁，經上稱祂為「憂患之子」。神確實常用憂愁去訓練祂的僕人。--譯自屬天的生命 The heavenly Life 每一個人和每個國家，都必須在神所賜的逆境中接受教訓。我們能夠說：「夜是有福的，因為夜裡有星。」照樣我們也能夠說：「憂愁是有福的，因為憂愁裡面有神的安慰。」 洪水沖走了窮人的家和磨坊，那些他僅有的財産。當洪水退去，他心碎地站在那遭難的地點，卻看到被沖刷過的竿上有些亮晶晶的事物。他說＂好像金子＂，結果真是金子。那曾使他的財産一掃而空的洪水，卻也使他成了富翁，人生亦常如此。--崔倫保 H.C. Trumbull 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (Eccles. 7:3). When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of experience and service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect the little meannesses in their nature. Sorrow is God's plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen, or were in a glorified state, then the strong torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force to open up all our souls' capacities; but in a fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly. Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately, and introspect our motives and dispositions. It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our fellows. We may suppose a class of indolent people living at the base of a great mountain range, who had never ventured to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains; and some day, when a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, it turns the hidden glens into echoing trumpets, and reveals the inner recesses of the valley, like the convolutions of a monster shell, and then the dwellers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the labyrinths and unexplored recesses of a region so near by, and yet so little known. So it is with many souls who indolently live on the outer edge of their own natures until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within that were never hitherto suspected. God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had more sorrow than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful bough…by a well, whose branches run over the wall" (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul. --The Heavenly Life Every person and every nation must take lessons in God's school of adversity. "We can say, 'Blessed is night, for it reveals to us the stars.' In the same way we can say, 'Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort.' The floods washed away home and mill, all the poor man had in the world. But as he stood on the scene of his loss, after the water had subsided, broken-hearted and discouraged, he saw something shining in the bank which the waters had washed bare. 'It looks like gold,' he said. It was gold. The flood which had beggared him made him rich. So it is ofttimes in life." --H. C. Trumbull ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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