Arizona republican., 1909-04-19
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
 FOR OUR OWN PROFIT
The Subject of Rev. Mir. Campbell's Address Yesterday Morning.

AL the F1rSt PreSbyterian church yesterday morning, the Rev. Henry
 Martyr Campbell. pastor. preached on
 the theme Spiritual Discipline" using
 as text the tenth verse of the twelfth
 chapter of Hebrews: For they verily for a few days chastened us after their
 own pleasure; but He for our profit,
 that we might be partakers of His
 Holiness" The following quotations
 outline the discourse:
 Did you ever mark your Bible? If
 not, did you erer look into the marked
 Bible of a friend? If you did, 1 fancy
 that you found the promises of God
 the most underscored parts of that
 Bible. The desire in our hearts is to
 think of the promises of the word of God and get just as far away from the
 things that are distressing as we can.
 All the world is seeking the road to the
 city called Happiness If we are wise,
 we will estimate our experiences in the
 light of our heavenly relationships.
 There are thousands of things that are
 worse than the sorrows that burden
 the life that now is. These trials may
 prove the greatest possible blessings
 because they belong to the plan of God
 for our lives.
 Let us consider the necessity for
 spiritual discipline. We ought not to
 ask for proofs of the necessity of it.
 It is a very law that God has made
 with relation to our spiritual condition,
 and it cannot but be the law if we are
 to grow in grace. It is a law that
 holds in the physical and the mental
 world as well as in the spiritual world.
 The arm of the blacksmith Is large
 and strong because of discipline. The
 athlete knows the value of training
 Discipline is just as necessary in the
 mental world. There is no excellence
 without great labor. The royal road
 to learning is a myth. No pain. no
 palm; no thorn, no throne; no cross,
 no crown. Pain is a friend to health.
 Just so in the spiritual life; if you and
 I are going to improve spiritually. we
 must pay the price of growth in grace
 There are some who say that sickness
 is a sort of suicide; that sickness and
 suffering are sin. There is nothing, to
 my mind that is more out of harmony
 with the word of God than that
 thought If suffering is sin, our Mas
 ter was an imperfect being. because
 He suffered. If suffering is sin. the
 man who is at the top spiritually can
 not be one who suffers. We know
 that oftentimes the man who is the
 strongest in faith and the things of
 God is the man who has passed most frequently under the rod of Gods af-
 friction. If you were to select the strongest and best servants of God. you would select the men and women who s. suffered in body and mind until they have turned their minds and hearts Godward and have come to have sweet peace in trusting in Him. The Apostle Paul asked thrice to have the thorn removed from his flesh. God said to him: My grace shall be sufficient for you and I will perfect my grace in your weakness You will find this truth again and again in the word of God. and you will find it outside of the Bible as well. The strongest and sweetest lives are often those at which we are amazed when the person does not groan out his agony at almost every breath. The happiest homes are often those in which there is the most suffering. Affliction promotes the glory of God: leads us to receive the teach ings of God; tests our sincerity; tries our faith: humbles us; purifies our hearts; convinces us of our sins; leads us to confess our sins; stimulates us to believe, and fills our lives with good works. Yet we ask God with all our hearts to take away the things that | try us, and we cannot understand how | it is that God allows us to suffer.
 What is the purpose of it all? It I is told in the last part of the text: | That ye may be partakers of His holi- | ness Not that He may simply scourge | us for the sake of scourging us; not | that He may try us, for the sake of | trying us: but that we may be par takers of His holiness. Not only is it | necessary in order that we shall be- i come partakers of His holiness. but if | we are not afflicted, We are not of God. | If we are without chastisement, we are not true sons of God. The father pun l ishes the child in order that he may | become the man that he should be. We l want to be like God in thought and | word and deed. and the only possible | way that we can be made like Him is | by way of trial We want to be like | God, but we would be made like Him | under conditions of our own choosing. | We want to grow in grace and add to | ourselves the Christian virtues, but we | do not want God to use on us the only | means by which He teaches us that He | can accomplish the purpose. If God | chastised us for any other reason than l for our good. we might have reason to | find fault, but all the suffering that | comes into our lives is to the end that | we may be made more Godlike; then | let us say. Welcome diversity
 "The results of affliction are summed | up in the words of our text. But for | our profit Fire is necessary to the | making of the strongest steel. What | kind of a thing would Christianity be | today if there were not in the life of | the Christian suffering and chastise- ment? Manifestly a poor, sickly thing. | What made mighty men of Joseph, of | of Job. and of all the proph- cts of old? What did the Master mean l when He said: Blessed are ye when | men shall revile you and persecute | you, and shall say all manner of evil | against you falsely for my sake? What | does the eleventh chapter of Hebrews | mean? That God can make the truest | Christians only by passing them | the fire. God cannot do with ] you and me the things that He wishes | to do unless He chastises us in love. | taII e.sr xNfl