their fixed lot. In time of pain or trouble, therefore, they submit silently with the silence of despair. Such submission, however, does not spring from love to God or from a realization of His great love towards men; therefore it is not acceptable in the sight of Him who knows men's hearts and from whom no secrets are hid. Nor can the helpless submission of despair, like the helplessness of a corpse in the hands of the washer ¹ of the dead, give true rest, peace and consolation to any man's heart. How entirely different from this is the trust and self-surrender of a true Christian! This trust springs from the love for God which reigns in his heart, and this love enables him to believe and understand that God loves him far more than any earthly father loves his child, and that, so loving him, God Most High is desirous of his salvation and true happiness. Knowing this, he trusts himself fully and gladly to the care of the all-wise and all-loving God. Under all circumstances, therefore, by the grace of God's Holy Spirit, the true Christian abides in peace and contented reliance upon his heavenly Father: and thus, even in pain and sorrow, a wellspring of happiness leaps up in his

heart. Accordingly it is written in the holy Scriptures:—

My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD;
Neither be weary of his reproof:
For whom the LORD loveth he reproveth;
Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.¹

And again it is written in another place: 'All ² chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous, but grievous: yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.' And again, St. Paul says: 'I ³ reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.' So in another Epistle he says: 'Our ⁴ light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.' Therefore it is that the Apostle (حواري) James says to the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ: 'Count ⁵ it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience . . .Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that