The Alaska citizen., 1916-08-21
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GODS USE OF 4 THORN.

the revelations. there was given tc me d thorn in the flesh the mes seneer of Satan to buffet me, lest should be exalted above measure. ' II Cor 12:7.
 Pain is the shadow of the sun shine. the thorn on the rose; the chisel in the hand Of the Master Sculptor; the crucible wherein the gold is separated from the dress {, the rich background of life; the spiritual lightning that purifies the atmosphere of the soul To suffer is to be a conqueror in the battle of the heart Mans mind may not of life
 Men have taken three attitudes to necessary but unsolicited pain: Some accept it and grow strong some resist it and grow bitter some deny il and become rdicu- lous. To suffer and grow strong is to add cubits to character Sorrow ever softens and enriches the soi, be able to understand suffering. but the heart understands. The heart should ever stand in direct control of the life. rather than the mind For, says William Jennings Bryan: Mind gained ascendancy IL. in as committed" The altar stairs may be steep and rugged. but they lead to light and life and love. We must often climb by the pathway of pain to the new heights where the soul may rest in the service os the truth
 To resist the pain of the loving Heavenly Father is to have an al Joy surplus in the coin of the soul Some permit themselves to grow bitter hard and fretful Some try in cynical. stoical determination tG conceal their pain. and carry it with a constant inward rebellion To deny the reality of suffering is to declare our own folly and to be no wiser than the silly ostrich, Christ recognized the fact of pain.
 If there is purpose in pain, if chastening is a divine evidence of Heavenly love if God is really us ing it to effect certain lofty results in our lives, while no suffering is pleasant for the moment, it can be borne with a smile and a peaceful heart. If We are sure that God real ly cares in the purifying and per fecting of our lives and souls in the sublime mission and service he has called Us to perform, then the trusting heart can say: Not my will but Thine be done Phy sical pain is but a passing inconveni- enCe in comparison to the misjudg ments, the disappointments, the lonelinesses in failure and violated love to which the life and soul is heir. At some time in life physi- cal. mental, moral or spiritual pain drove you to God in believing pray CT. One of the dear ones in the going wrong, and every cent was slipping from your grasp; your chil- dren were giving you painful anXie ty; you knew yourself misjudged maligned, persecuted; even your love U fellowmen was unrequited and abused God gave you in your spe cal emergency, deliverance and strength. and withal a richness of soul IL all came about through prayer You are now recalling that time in your life when God came to you with full assurance, the time when you could neither eat nor sleep when a great stone of appre- hension and fear weighted you sore, and in that assurance gave you con, fidence that delWerance would come in due time Such is Gods way of enriching the soul.
 To suffer much is to love much. Many lives are notably free from pain There may come a time to us all when our character is to be refined in the chastening fire of a loving Father. The pain may be kept away from blthe and blissful lives, and Heavenly enrichment found in some other way, but time may come when the storm will strike the house and the sable curtain shut out the light of under standing, and pain will creep over your life in waves of mighty power and severity. You should hold in your hand clew to it all lest in your bewilderment, losing what He would send for your own enrichment, and which perhaps will come in no other way.
 Study the great passage on the mystery of pain and the glorifica- ton of the thorn: But We see Je- sus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him, for whom