大事小事不断

憋得慌啊……

又开始想家了，不过要忙的事情好多。

突然很羡慕老妈老爸那一辈的人，这么多兄弟姐妹怎么也不会感到寂寞了。

不知道这几堂课结束能学到多少东西。

要准备的东西太多了……也许没时间回去了吧，只好在梦里想想了。

去solvang和santa cruis一直没上照片

今天补上

'Shut up to faith.' (Gal. 3:23.)

GOD in olden time suffered man to be kept in ward by the law that he might learn the more excellent way of faith. For by the law he would see God's holy standard and by the law he would see his own utter helplessness; then he would be glad to learn God's way of faith.

God still shuts us up to faith. Our natures, our circumstances, trials, disappointments, all serve to shut us up and keep us in ward till we see that the only way out is God's way of faith. Moses tried by self-effort, by personal influence, even by violence, to bring about the deliverance of his people. God had to shut him up forty years in the wilderness before he was prepared for God's work.

Paul and Silas were bidden of God to preach the Gospel in Europe. They landed and proceeded to Philippi. They were flogged, they were shut up in prison, their feet were put fast in the stocks. They were shut up to faith. They trusted God. They sang praises to Him in the darkest hour, and God wrought deliverance and salvation.

John was banished to the Isle of Patmos. He was shut up to faith. Had he not been so shut up, he would never have seen such glorious visions of God.

Dear reader, are you in some great trouble? Have you had some great disappointment, have you met some sorrow, some unspeakable loss? Are you in a hard place? Cheer up! You are shut up to faith. Take your trouble the right way. Commit it to God. Praise Him that He maketh 'all things work together for good,' and that 'God worken for him that waiteth of him.' There will be blessings, help and revelations of God that will come to you that never could otherwise have come; and many besides yourself will receive great light and blessing because you were shut up to faith. --- C. H. P.

《荒漠甘泉》8月25日


　　“但信还未来以先，我们被看守在律法之下，直关到那将来的信显明出来。”（加3：23直译）

　　在基督的福音还未传世之前，神往昔让受难的人禁闭在律法之下，为的是要人知道信心的意义。在律法下面，人能看见神圣洁的标准；在律法下面，人能看见自己的完全无能；在这样没有办法的时候，他乐于学习神的信仰之道。所以加拉太书说：“律法是我们的师傅，引我们到基督里。”

　　神现在还是常常喜欢将我们关闭起来，只留给我们一条信心的道路。我们的天性，我们的环境、试炼、失望，都是神用来关闭看守我们的东西，要叫我们看见：唯一的出路，乃是神所预备的信心的道路。摩西年少的时候，在埃及曾想用自己的努力，个人的势力，甚至武力、暴力，来拯救他的民族，所以神必须将他关闭野外四十年，然后才用他去做神的工作。

　　保罗和西拉往腓力比去宣传福音，受了鞭打，被下在监里，两脚上了木狗。他们四面的出路都关住了，只剩下一条信心的道路。他们信靠神。在最黑暗的光景里还祷告，唱诗，赞美神，神就向他们施行拯救。

　　约翰被放逐到了拔摩海岛。他四面的出路都关住了，只留下一条信心的道路。如果他不经过这样关闭的话，他决不能见到神荣耀的启示。

　　亲爱的读者，你是不是正遭遇了极大的困难呢？是不是正有一件极大的失望临到你呢？这件事情是不是叫你悲哀，叫里遭到说不尽的损失呢？你是不是很难过去呢？不要紧，你四面的出路虽然都已经关住了，却还留着一条信心的道路。好好地负起你的困难来交托神。赞美他！因为他使“万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处。”（罗8：28）。并且 “神为等候他的人行事。”（赛64：4）。你受过试炼以后，神的祝福，帮助，启示，都要加倍地临到里；除里自己以外，还有许多别的人，也都会因着你的试炼得到亮光和祝福。

Banck from Santa Cruz -- one of the Channel Islands and Solvang village

Photos'll come out later...

'I have all, and abound.' (Phil. 4:18.)

IN one of my garden books there is a chapter with a very interesting heading, 'Flowers that Grow in the Gloom.' It deals with those patches in a garden which never catch the sunlight. And my guide tells me the sort of flowers which are not afraid of these dingy corners─may rather like them and flourish in them.

And there are similar things in the world of the spirit. They come out when material circumstances become stern and severs. They grow in the gloom. How can we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the Apostle Paul?

Here he is in captivity at Rome. The supreme mission of his life appears to be broken. But it is just in this besetting dinginess that flowers begin to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory. He may have seen them before, growing in the open road, but never as they now appeared in incomparable strength and beauty. Words of promise opened out their treasures as he had never seen them before.

Among those treasures were such wonderful things as the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy and peace of Christ; and it seemed as though they needed an 'encircling gloom' to draw out their secret and their inner glory. At any rate the realm of gloom became the home of revelation, and Paul began to realize as never before the range and wealth of his spiritual inheritance.

Who has not known men and women who, when they arrive at seasons of gloom and solitude, put on strength and hopefulness like a robe? You may imprison such folk where you please; but you shut up their treasure with them. You cannot shut it out. 'You may make their material lot a desert, but 'the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.'
--- Dr. Jowett.

'Every flower, even the fairest, has its shadow beneath it as it swings in the sunlight.'

Where there is much light there is much shade.

《荒漠甘泉》8月24日


　　“我样样都有，并且有余。”（腓4：18）

　　在我一本园艺书籍里面，有一篇叫做□生在黑暗里的花□。内中讲到有一种小花，是从来不需要日光的。我的先生告诉我说，这种小花不但不怕黑暗，并且在黑暗里反倒生长得快。

　　灵界里也有同样的小花。当物质环境最黑暗的时候，它们就出来了。它们是生在黑暗里的。

　　使徒保罗写这封腓立比书信的时候，正在罗马作俘虏。那时候，他一生的事业似乎将要结束了。正是在这样受围困的黑暗里，花儿开放得特别可爱。也许保罗以前已经看见过这些花儿，但是它们却从来没有象今天这样浓郁美丽的。神的话替他揭开了一个他以前从来没有看见过的宝藏。

　　在这个宝藏里面有几样奇异的东西：基督的恩典，基督的爱，基督的喜乐和平安；这些东西似乎需要黑暗去开发它们的神秘和荣耀一般。经历了黑暗以后，保罗开始发现他以前所没有发现的属灵产业的广大和丰富了。——乔怀德

　　每一朵花，就是最美丽的，在日光下也都有它的黑影的。

　　光越大，影越黑

'He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me; because he delighted in me.' (Psa. 18:19.)

AND what is this 'large place?' What can it be but God Himself, that infinite Being in whom all other beings and all other streams of life terminate? God is a large place indeed. And it was through humiliation, through abasement, through nothingness that David was brought into it. --- Madame Guyon.

'I bare you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto myself.'(Exod. 19:4.)

《荒漠甘泉》8月21日


　　“他又领我到宽阔之处，他救拔我，因他喜悦我。”（诗18：19）

　　这“宽阔之处”究竟是什么呢？这不是别的，乃是神自己——一切生命河流的归宿。神实在是一个宽阔之处。大卫被领到宽阔之处，是先经过羞耻和侮辱的。——盖恩夫人

　　“我如鹰将你们背在翅膀上，带来归我。”(出19：4)

'And the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land.' (Acts 27:44.)

THE marvelous story of Paul's voyage to Rome, with its trials and triumphs, is a fine pattern of the lights and shades of the way of faith all through the story of human life. The remarkable feature of it is the hard and narrow places which we find intermingled with God's most extraordinary interpositions and providences.

It is the common idea that the pathway of faith is strewm with flowers, and that when God interposes in the life of His people, He does it on a scale so grand that He lifts us quite out of the plane of difficulties. The actual fact, however, is that the real experience is quite contrary. The story of the Bible is one of alternate trial triumph in the case of everyone of the cloud of witnesses from Abel down to the latest martyr.

Paul, more than anyone else, was an example of how much a child of God can suffer without being crushed or broken in spirit. On account of his testifying in Damascus, he was hunted down by persecutors and obliged to fly for his life, but we behold no heavenly chariot transporting the holy apostle amid thunderbolts of flame from the reach of his foes, but 'through a window in a basket,' was he let down over the walls of Damascus and so escaped their hands. In an old clothes basket, like a bundle of laundry, or groceries, the servant of Jesus Christ was dropped from the window and ignominiously fled from the hate of his foes.

Again we find him left for months in the lonely dungeons; we find him telling of his watchings, his fastings, and his desertion by friends, of his brutal and shameful beatings, and here even after God has promised to deliver him, we see him for days left to toss upon a stormy sea, obliged to stand guard over the treacherous seaman, and at last when the deliverance comes, there is no heavenly galley sailing from the skies to take off the noble prisoner; there is no angel form walking along the waters and stilling the raging breakers; there is no supernatural sign of the transcendent miracle that is being wrought; but one is compelled to seize a spar, another a floating plank, another to climb on a fragment of the wreck, another to strike out and swim for his life.

Here is God's pattern for our own lives. Here is a Gospel of help for people that have to live in this every day world with real and ordinary surroundings, and a thousand practical conditions which have to be met in a thoroughly practical way.

God's promises and God's providences do not lift us out of the plane of common sense and commonplace trial, but it is through these very things that faith is perfected, and that God loves to interweave the golden threads of His love along the warp and woof of our every day experience. --- Hard Places in the Way of Faith.

《荒漠甘泉》8月22日


　　“其余的人，可以用板子，或船上的零碎东西上岸。这样，众人都得救上了岸。”（徒27：44）

　　保罗上罗马去的那奇异的经历——所受的试炼和所得的荣耀——真是信徒走信心道路的一个好模型。其中最宝贵的教训乃是：在我们所到的一切困难狭窄的地方，都有神特殊的办法和预备的。

　　按照人们普通的眼光看来，信心的道路，一定是满撒着鲜花的；什么时候神要拯救他的子民脱离危险，神会立刻将他们从困难中提出来。事实却正相反。圣经上的故事告诉我们：每一个见证人——从亚伯拉罕起，一直到最近一个殉道者——都是先受试炼，后得荣耀的。

　　保罗的经历告诉我们：一个神的孩子，无论受多少苦，仍能不在灵里受压。保罗因为在大马色宣传耶稣的缘故，犹太人商议要杀他，我们看见那时候天上并没有在火焰雷电中降下战车战马来把这位大使徒从仇敌的势力范围中护送出去，他是 “用筐子…从城墙上缒下去的。”（9：25）。你看，被装在一只旧的衣筐里面！象一包送出去洗涤的衣服一般！耶稣基督的仆人竟这样坍台地从窗户口缒下去！

　　后来我们又看见他被下在监里；我们看见他怎样被亲友遗弃，怎样受残酷可耻的鞭打；就是在神允许拯救他以后，我们还看见他被留在波涛汹涌的海中颠簸；最后，拯救来了，可是天上并没有大船飞下来把这位尊贵的囚犯接出去；也没有天使在水面上平静狂獗的怒涛；船上的人，必须有的抓住桅杆，有的抓住木板，有的攀住破船的碎片，有的跳下水去游泳，才能得救上岸。这就是神对待我们的方法。

　　这是神给我们安排的生活方式，对于那些生活在实际环境中的人们，这是个有助的福音，神的应许与神的旨意，并不立刻将我们从试炼中提出来，但是因这些试炼完成了我们的信心，于是神才喜欢用他那爱的金线，交织在我们日常生经验的经纬之中，使之获得美丽与光荣。

'He went out, not knowing whither he went.'(Heb. 11:8.)

IT is faith without sight. When we can see, it is not faith, but reasoning. In crossing the Atlantic we observed this very principle of faith. We saw no path upon the sea, nor sign of the shore. And yet day by day we were marking our path upon the chart as exactly as if there had followed us a great chalk line upon the sea. And when we came within twenty miles of land, we knew where we were as exactly as if we had seen it all three thousand miles ahead.

How had we measured and marked our course? Day by day our captain had take his instruments and, looking up to the sky, had fixed his course by the sun. He was sailing by the heavenly, not the earthly lights.

So faith looks up and sails on, by God's great Sun, not seeing one shore line or earthly lighthouse or path upon the way. Often its steps seem to lead into utter uncertainty, and even darkness and disaster; but He opens the way, and often makes such midnight hours the very gates of day. Let us go forth this day, not knowing, but trusting. --- Days of Heaven upon Earth.

'Too many of us want to see our way through before starting new enterprises. If we could and did, from whence would come the development of our Christian graces? Faith, hope and love cannot be plucked from trees, like ripe apples. After the words `In the beginning' comes the word `God.' The first step turns the key into God's power-house, and it is not only true that God helps those who help themselves, but He also helps those who cannot help themselves. You can depend upon Him every time.'

'Waiting on God brings us to our journey's end quicker than our feet.'

The opportunity is often lost by deliberation.

《荒漠甘泉》8月23日


　　“亚伯拉罕因着信，蒙召的时候，就遵命出去，往将来要得为业的地方去，出去的时候，还不知道往哪里去。”（来11：8）

　　这就是不凭眼见的信心。凡凭眼见的，就不是凭信心，乃是凭理由了。轮船横渡大西洋，也是本着信心的原则的。我们在海面上看不见什么途径，也看不见什么海岸，我们却能一天过一天在航海图上划着标号。当轮船前行了若干哩的时候，我们立刻就会知道我们已经到了什么地方。

　　但是我们是怎样来测量我们所划的行程的呢？我们的船主每天拿着他的测量器望着天，籍着太阳来规定他的行程。他是籍着天上的光——不是地上的光——来航行的。

　　信心也是这样航行的——望着天，籍着神的光；虽然并没有看见航线、灯塔、或者途径。许多时候，信心的脚步似乎牵引我们进入了黑暗和灾祸，但是神开了路，夜半变成了黎明。让我们今天也这样前行罢——不是因着知道，乃是因着相信。——译自地上的天上生活

　　我们中间有许多人常常要先看清路程，才肯起行。这样，怎能在基督里有长进呢？信、望、爱，是不能象长熟的苹果那样从树上摘下来的。创世记一章一节 “起初”后面接着就说 “神。”神是全能的，神不单引领那自己帮助自己的人，神也引领那自己不能帮助自己的人。你只要全心依赖他就是了。

　　等候神，比用自己的脚，更能迅速抵达我们旅程的终点。

　　良好的机会，常是因审慎过度失去的。——选

'And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.' (Gen. 32:24.)

GOD is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God. It was the Son of man, the Angel of the Covenant. It was God in human form pressing down and pressing out the old Jacob life; and ere the morning broke, God had prevailed and Jacob fell with his thigh dislocated. But as he fell, he fell into the arms of God, and there he clung and wrestled, too, until the blessing came; and the new life was born and he arose from the earthly to the heavenly, the human to the diving, the natural to the supernatural. And as he went forth that morning he was a weak and broken man, but God was there instead; and the heavenly voice proclaimed, 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.'

Beloved, this must ever be a typical scene in every transformed life. There comes a crisis-hour to each of us, if God has called us to the highest and best, when all resources fail; when we face either ruin or something higher than we ever dreamed; when we must have infinite help from God and yet, ere ve can have it, we must let something go; we must surrender completely; we must cease from our own wisdom, strength, and righteousness, and become crucified with Christ and alive in Him. God knows how to lead us up to this crisis, and He knows how to lead us through.

Is He leading you thus? Is this the meaning of your deep trial, or your difficult surrounding, or that impossible situation, or that trying place through which you cannot go without Him, and yet you have not enough of Him to give you the victory?

Oh, turn to Jacob's God! Cast yourself helplessly at His feet. Die to your strength and wisdom in His loving arms and rise, like Jacob, into His strength and all-sufficiency. There is no way out of your hard and narrow place but at the top. You must get deliverance by rising higher and coming into a new experience with God. Oh, may it bring you into all that is meant by the revelation of the Mighty One of Jacob! --- But God.

'At Thy feet I fall,
Yield Thee up my All,
To SUFFER, LIVE, OR DIE
For my Lord crucified.'

《荒漠甘泉》8月20日


　　“只剩下雅各一人。有一个人来和他摔跤，直到黎明。。”（创32：24）

　　在这里我们看见神来和雅各摔跤。在黎明以前，雅各的大腿窝扭了。但是他一倒下去，在倒在神的双臂中，雅各就紧紧扭住不放，直到得着了他所要的祝福；一个新生命由此产生了。——他倒下去的时候，是一个属地的，属人的，天然的生命，他起来的时候，已成了属天的，属神的，超然的生命了。他那天早晨前行的时候，虽然成了一个疲弱残废的人，神却宣言说：“你的名不要在叫雅各，要叫以色列；因为你与神与人摔跤，都得了胜。”（28节）

　　亲爱的读者，如果神要我们进入最高最美的一步，我们每一个人都必须经历同样的争战——一切策略都会失败，所遭遇的尽是梦想不到的毁灭——那时候，我们必须从神领受超然的能力才能站住；但是，在领受神超然的能力之前，我们必须先出代价——我们必须完全顺服；我们必须停止我们自己的智慧、能力、和公义，与基督同钉十字架，在他里面复活。神知道怎样引导我们上这一步，他也知道用什么方法引导我们经过。

　　亲爱的读者，神现在是不是正在这样引领你呢？你是不是正遭遇到了极严重的试炼，极困难的环境，极险恶的情势呢？你是不是没有神竟不能过去呢？你是不是没有力量来得胜呢？

　　去投靠雅各的神罢！将你自己无力地摔在他的脚前。在他慈爱的双臂中死去你的能力和智慧，象雅各一样，带着神的能力和充足起来。如果你想走出你的困难狭窄的处境，出路是在顶上。你必须向上走，才能得到释放。哦，巴不得你也能得到雅各所得到的一切！——选

'As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.' (2 Cor. 6:10.)

SORROW was beautiful, but her beauty was the beauty of the moonlight shining through the leafy branches of the trees in the wood, and making little pools of silver here and there on the soft green moss below.

When Sorrow sang, her notes were like the low sweet call of the nightingale, and in her eyes was the unexpectant gaze of one who has ceased to look for coming gladness. She could weep in tender sympathy with those who weep, but to rejoice with those who rejoice was unknown to her.

Joy was beautiful, too, but his was the radiant beauty of the summer morning. His eyes still held the glad laughter of childhood, and his hair had the glint of the sunshine's kiss. When Joy sang his voice soared upward as the lark's, and his step was the step of a conqueror who has never known defeat. He could rejoice with all who rejoice, but to weep with those who weep was unknown to him.

'But we can never be united,' said Sorrow, wistfully.

'No, never.' And Joy's eyes shadowed as he spoke. 'My path lies through the sunlit meadows, the sweetest roses bloom for my gathering, and the blackbirds and thrushes await my coming to pour forth their most joyous lays.'

'My path,' said Sorrow, turning slowly away, 'leads through the darkening woods, with moon-flowers only shall my hands be filled. Yet the sweeted of all earth-songs─the love song of the night─shall be mine; farewell, Joy, farewell.'

Even as she spoke they became conscious of a form standing beside them; dimly seen, but of a Kingly Presence, and a great and holy awe stole over them as they sank on their knees before Him.

'I see Him as the King of Joy,' whispered Sorrow, 'for on His Head are many crown, and the nailprints in His hands and feet are the scars of a great victory. Before Him all my sorrow is melting away into deathless love and gladness, and I give myself to Him forever.'

'Nay, Sorrow,' said Joy softly, 'but I see Him as the King of Sorrow, and the crown on His head is a crown of thorns, and the nailprints in His hands and feet are the scars of a great agony. I, too, give myself to Him forever, for sorrow with Him must be sweeter than any joy that I have known.'

'Then we are one in Him,' they cried in gladness, 'for none but He could unite Joy and Sorrow.'

Hand in hand they passed out into the world to follow Him through storm and sunshine, in the bleakness of winter cold and the warmth of summer gladness, 'as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.'

'Should Sorrow lay her hand upon thy shoulder,
And walk with thee in silence on life's way,
While Joy, thy bright companion once, grown colder,
Becomes to thee more distant day by day?
Shrink not from the companionship of Sorrow,
She is the messenger of God to thee;
And thou wilt thank Him in His great tomorrow─
For what thou knowest not now, thou then shalt see;
She is God's angel, clad in weeds of night,
With `whom we walk by faith and not by sight.''

《荒漠甘泉》8月19日


　　“似乎忧愁，却是常常快乐的。”（林后6：10）

　　忧愁是很美丽的，它的美丽是月光的美丽。它的歌声好象夜莺的鸣声，它的目光带着并不期望快乐的神情。它能够与哀哭的人同哭，却不能与快乐的人同乐。

　　快乐一是很美丽的，它的美丽是夏晨的美丽。它的目光含蓄着儿童时代的欢笑，它的头发受着日光的闪射。它的歌声象百灵鸟的歌声一般翱翔云上，它的脚步是一个从来不知道失败的得胜者的脚步。它能够与一切快乐的人同乐，却不能与哀哭的人同哭。

　　忧愁沉思着道：“我俩是决不能合作的了。”

　　快乐说：“是啊决不能了。我的道路是在充满阳光的草场上的，玫瑰为我开着芳香的花朵，山鸟和画眉为我唱着欢乐的情歌。”

　　忧愁徐徐转过身去说道：“我的道路是在黑暗的森林中的。但是世上最甜蜜的诗歌——深夜的情歌——却是属于我的。再会，快乐，再会吧。”

　　在她说话的时候，他们觉得有有一个人体立在他们旁边；虽然看不清楚是谁，却知道是一位君王，他们跪倒在他面前，感觉非常惧怕。

　　忧愁轻声说道：“我看他一定是快乐的王，因为他头上戴着许多冠冕，手上和脚上带着胜利的钉痕。我在他面前，一切的忧愁都化为不息的爱和欢乐了，我愿意把我自己奉献给他。”

　　快乐低声说道：“你错了，忧愁，我看他是忧愁的王，他头上戴着的冠冕是荆棘的冠冕，他手上和脚上带着的钉痕是痛苦的伤痕。我也愿意把我自己永远奉献给他，因为有他同在的忧愁，一定比我所知道的快乐更加甘甜。”

　　他俩同声欢呼说道：“这样，我们在他里面仍是一体，只有他能将快乐和忧愁合成一体。”

　　他俩手牵着手同在世上跟随他走——有时在风雨中，有时在阳光中，有时在冬日的凛冽中，有时在夏日的温暖中—— “似乎忧愁，却是常常快乐的。”

'Alone.' (Deut. 32:12.)

'The hill was steep, but cheered along the way
By converse sweet, I mounted on the thought
That so it might be till the height was reached;
But suddenly a narrow winding path
Appeared, and then the Master said, `My child,
Here thou wilt safest walk with Me alone.'

'I trembled, yet my heart's deep trust replied,
`So be it, Lord.' He took my feeble hand
In His, accepting thus my will to yield Him
All, and to find all in Him.
One long, dark moment,
And no friend I saw, save Jesus only.

'But oh! so tenderly He led me on
And up, and spoke to me such words of cheer,
Such secret whisperings of His wondrous love,
That soon I told Him all my grief and fear,
And leaned on His strong arm confidingly.

'And then I found my footsteps quickened.
And light ineffable, the rugged way
Illumined, such light as only can be seen
In close companionship with God.

'A little while, and we shall meet again
The loved and lost; but in the rapturous joy
Of greetings, such as here we cannot know,
And happy song, and heavenly embraces,
And tender recollections rushing back
Of pilgrim life, methinks one memory
More dear and sacred than the rest, shall rise

'And we who gather in the golden streets,
Shall oft be stirred to speak with grateful love
Of that dark day when Jesus bade us climb
Some narrow steep, leaning on Him alone.'

'There is no high hill but beside some deep valley. There is no birth without a pang.' --- Dan Crawford.

《荒漠甘泉》8月18日


「耶和華獨自引導他。」（聖經申命記卅二章 12 節）

　　山路雖然險峻，但是沿途有同伴的談笑，也就不覺得怎樣困難了； 我想，這樣走上山頂，也不算難啊；那裏知道，突然間一條狹窄曲折的小徑出現了，那時主對我說：「我的孩子，這裡你獨自跟我走吧！」

　　我戰慄了，但是在我心裡深處，卻帶著信心答道：「主啊！願你的旨意成就。」祂握住了我弱小的手，接納了我的順服。我跟著上帝走了一條很長很難走的路；除祂以外，沒有看見一個朋友。

　　啊！祂真溫柔，祂用溫暖的手牽著我前進，對我說了許多激勵的話語，在我耳邊流露了他奇妙的愛情。不久，我也將我的憂愁和恐懼一一告訴了祂，放放心心地偎倚在祂強大的手臂中。

　　那時候，我的腳步加速了，我的喜樂真是難以言喻，崎嶇的山路上發出了明亮的光輝。

　　再過一會兒，我們要在天上遇見許多我們所親愛、所失去的人們。但是在不能想像的狂喜、快活的歌唱、親密的擁抱、旅程的回憶中，有一件事情最值得我們回憶的，就是我們在黑暗中攀登狹窄的絕壁時，耶和華獨自引導我們。
　　深谷之旁，才有高山。没有不经痛苦的生产。