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| Psalm 66:12 |
By Seth Rees
"Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." (Psalms lxvi. 12).
The margin reads "a moist place," which means ''a fertile place.'' The great primary truth set forth in this text is the service of difficulty in the Christian experience. It is a fact in the history of nations that adverse circumstances have always been favorable to national prosperity. The inhabitants of a northern country have always had the ascendancy over those of the southern and more tropical lands. The inhospitable climate and sterile soil and adverse conditions have demanded energy and rugged strength.
It was opposition and oppression that forced our fathers to the Revolution and into heroism, and ultimately into independence. Israel gained more by Pharaoh's oppression than she lost. The more she was oppressed the more she multiplied and grew. It has been in the times of great political and social upheaval that the strongest men have been developed. Such men as General Washington, Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, Robert E. Lee and a host of others would never have come to the front in times of peace; but in the nation's greatest struggles they shone forth. There are millions of people who would never have heard of Hobson or of Dewey had it not been for the recent struggle between this country and Spain. There is something about opposition and difficulty that wakes up the strongest qualities of the soul and brings forth activity the best men to be had. The illustrious characters of the Bible were all educated in the school of difficulty. Abraham was never called "the Father of the faithful" until that awful tragedy on Mount Moriah. Jacob rode to his highest achievements in the chariot of severe discipline. Joseph's path to the throne lay through Egypt's prison cell. David's way to the throne was through the valley of nine years' persecution and oppression. He knew what it was to be a king and at the same time to have to wait for his crown. Paul preached in Caesar's household with iron on his limbs, and John Bunyan did his best work in Bedford jail. The most illustrious men of the ages have blazed forth when earth and hell were pitted against them. The darkest hours that the church has ever seen have been the times when she has won some of her most tremendous victories.
This is not only true of the church as a whole, but it is also true of individuals; oppression and opposition and poverty have forced many a life into moral honor and spiritual greatness. Thousands of men are stalwart for God, and will shine like particular stars in the firmament of history, who would have been of no account and would have been worthless but for the force of circumstances, which has forced them out of a place of ease, out of a place of comfort, into great struggle and tremendous conflict; and the greater the conflict, the greater the victory. We can never have a great victory unless we have an engagement. There are thousands of people who seem to want victory, but who dread the conflict necessary to obtain it. Those who shrink from trial, from temptation, from difficulty and from testing, fail to understand that it is impossible for us to have a grand triumph over a foe unless there is a foe to contend with -- unless there is a battle to be fought. If we want to know the triumph of the ages, we have got to be willing to engage in a hand-to-hand conflict with the powers of darkness, that God may have a chance to display His power in making us victorious over the world, the flesh, the devil; over death, hell and the grave.
