The Good Husbandman May Pluck His Rose

Praise God For The Hammer, The File, And The Furnace. The Hammer Molds Us, The File Sharpens Us, And The Fire Tempers Us.

Howbeit Your Faith Seeth But The Black Side Of Providence, Yet It Hath A Better Side, And God Shall Let You See It. ... “for We Know That All Things Work Together For Good To Them That Love God,” Ergo, Shipwreck, Losses, &c., Work Together For The Good Of Them That Love God: Hence I Infer, That Losses, Disappointments, Ill Tongues, Loss Of Friends, Houses, Or Country, Are God's Workmen, Set On Work To Work Out Good To You, Out Of Everything That Befalleth You.

It Is The Lord's Kindness That He Will Take The Scum Off Us In The Fire. Who Know How Needful Winnowing Is To Us And What Dross We Have Before We Enter The Kingdom Of God? So Narrow Is The Entry To Heaven That Our Knots, Lumps Of Pride, Self-love, Idol-love, And World-love Must Be Hammered Off Us, That We May Stoop Low And Creep Through Into That Narrow Entry.

I Perceive We Postpone All Our Joys Of Christ, Till He And We Be In Our Own House Above, Thinking That There Is Nothing Of It Here To Be Sought Or Found, But Only Hope And Fair Promises; And That Christ Will Give Us Nothing Here But Tears, Sadness, Crosses; And That We Shall Never Feel The Smell Of The Flowers Of That High Garden Of Paradise Above, Till We Come There. Nay, But I Find It Possible To Find Young Glory, And A Young Green Paradise Of Joy Even Here. We Dream Of Hunger In Christ's House, While We Are Here, Although He Alloweth Feasts To All The Bairns Within God's Household.

Oh Thrice Fools Are We Who Like New-born Princes Weeping In The Cradle Know Not That There Is A Kingdom Before Them Then Let Our Lord's Sweet Hand Square Us And Hammer Us And Strike Off The Knots Of Pride Self-love And World-worship And Infidelity That He May Make Us Stones And Pillars In His Father's House.