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經文：「因受苦難得以完全。」（來2:10） 鐵加上火會產生鋼；岩石加上熱能或冰河的摩擦會產生土；亞麻加上清洗梳理與槌擊紡織會產生麻布。同樣，人的品格也是有其成形的因素。偉人絕對不會被世界遺忘，只是人們常忘記偉大不是由安逸所造成的。 曾經有位母親帶了一位瘸腿又駝背的孩子回家，作她兒子的玩伴。她預先警告兒子要十分當心，不要因為言語中傷這殘障孩子的感受；只要將他視為普通的孩子那般與他一同玩耍。 當孩子們玩耍的時候，母親躲在旁偷聽兒子會說些甚麼；幾分鐘之後，兒子對小玩伴說：「你知道你背上揹的是甚麼嗎？」，小駝背聽後大為受窘，答不出一句話來。然後兒子說：「這是一個裝有翅膀的匣子；會有一天，神要替你打開；那時，你就能像天使一樣飛行了。」 同樣會有一天，神必讓所有信徒看見：他們現在所抗拒的，乃是神使用的工具，為要使他們完全；成為磨光的石材，好用以建造天上的殿宇。 --邁爾斯 Myers 苦難對於人格的培養，是一種奇妙的養分。因為人生偉大的目的，就是培養人格；也惟有人格可以隨著我們進入永恒。而試煉的目的，就是為了幫助我們獲得高尚的人格。--斐爾波斯 Austin Phelps 。 走盡荊棘路，能登異象山。 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Perfect through suffering" (Heb. 2:10). Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering. I heard of a mother who brought into her home as a companion to her own son, a crippled boy who was also a hunchback. She had warned her boy to be very careful in his relations to him, and not to touch the sensitive part of his life but go right on playing with him as if he were an ordinary boy. She listened to her son as they were playing; and after a few minutes he said to his companion: "Do you know what you have got on your back?" The little hunchback was embarrassed, and he hesitated a moment. The boy said: "It is the box in which your wings are; and some day God is going to cut it open, and then you will fly away and be an angel." Some day, God is going to reveal the fact to every Christian, that the very principles they now rebel against, have been the instruments which He used in perfecting their characters and moulding them into perfection, polished stones for His great building yonder. --Cortland Myers Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots of character. The great object of this life is character. This is the only thing we can carry with us into eternity. . . . To gain the most of it and the best of it is the object of probation. --Austin Phelps "By the thorn road and no other is the mount of vision won." ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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