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經文：「似乎要死，卻是活著。」（林後6:9） 某年夏天，我在鄉下的園子裏築了一座長方形的花圃，當中種著紫菀，開得非常茂盛。但是因為下種較慢，當枝頂結子時，兩側還初萌花苗。等到初霜降臨時，我發現那些豔麗的花朵竟已枯萎，我感歎：「小花大概承受不住這裏的氣候，所以才會枯萎。」，心裡也充滿婉惜。 之後我便無心再去看那花圃，而花圃也漸漸淪落到像是一座花的墳場。但是到了隔年春天，園丁先生特地告訴我，那塊花圃已重新長滿極其繁茂的紫菀。我趕去一看，那些本以為去年冬季已經枯萎的每一株紫菀，卻又繁殖了五十株新苗。那時的冰霜和寒風，完成了繁殖紫菀的使命，於是我問自己：它們所經歷的究竟是破壞，還是建設？ 當那去年冬天的寒風將紫菀花大舉摧折，吹散滿地；彷彿用沾雪的腳任意踐踏，風說：「這是花的末日。」。等到第二年的春天，每枝殘花從原處長出新根，花說：「我們因死得生。」 在植物界如此，在天國也是如此；從死亡生出不朽的生命。永生神的寶座和聖殿是經過十字架和墳墓；勝利也是從失敗而來。 所以，「請不要怕受苦，也不要怕失敗。」 凡是偉人常是被打倒卻不被消滅，受盡折磨與破碎，然後才能變成力抵千軍的偉人；而那些短視近利，隨世沉浮的人，有如曇花一現，在短暫的興旺之後，隨即消逝，不復存在。--皮邱 Beecher 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "As dying and behold we live" (2 Cor. 6:9). I had a bed of asters last summer, that reached clear across my garden in the country. Oh, how gaily they bloomed. They were planted late. On the sides were yet fresh blossoming flowers, while the tops had gone to seed. Early frosts came, and I found one day that that long line of radiant beauty was seared, and I said, "Ah! the season is too much for them; they have perished"; and I bade them farewell. I disliked to go and look at the bed, it looked so like a graveyard of flowers. But, four or five weeks ago one of my men called my attention to the fact that along the whole line of that bed there were asters coming up in the greatest abundance; and I looked, and behold, for every plant that I thought the winter had destroyed there were fifty plants that it had planted. What did those frosts and surly winds do? They caught my flowers, they slew them, they cast them to the ground, they trod with snowy feet upon them, and they said, leaving their work, "This is the end of you." And the next spring there were for every root, fifty witnesses to rise up and say, "By death we live." And as it is in the floral tribe, so it is in God's kingdom. By death came everlasting life. By crucifixion and the sepulchre came the throne and the palace of the Eternal God. By overthrow came victory. Do not be afraid to suffer. Do not be afraid to be overthrown. It is by being cast down and not destroyed; it is by being shaken to pieces, and the pieces torn to shreds, that men become men of might, and that one a host; whereas men that yield to the appearance of things, and go with the world, have their quick blossoming, their momentary prosperity and then their end, which is an end forever.--Beecher ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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