"I even reckon all things as pure loss because of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Phil. 3:8) (Weymouth)
Shining is always costly. Light comes only at the cost of that which produces it. An unlit candle does no shining. Burning must come before shining. We cannot be of great use to others without cost to ourselves. Burning suggests suffering. We shrink from pain.
We are apt to feel that we are doing the greatest good in the world when we are strong, and able for active duty, and when the heart and hands are full of kindly service.
When we are called aside and can only suffer; when we are sick; when we are consumed with pain; when all our activities have been dropped, we feel that we are no longer of use, that we are not doing anything.
But, if we are patient and submissive, it is almost certain that we are a greater blessing to the world in our time of suffering and pain than we were in the days when we thought we were doing the most of our work. We are burning now, and shining because we are burning. --Evening Thoughts.
"The glory of tomorrow is rooted in the drudgery of today."
Many want the glory without the cross, the shining without the burning, but crucifixion comes before coronation.
Have you heard the tale of the aloe plant,
Away in the sunny clime?
By humble growth of a hundred years
It reaches its blooming time;
And then a wondrous bud at its crown
Breaks into a thousand flowers;
This floral queen, in its blooming seen,
Is the pride of the tropical bowers,
But the plant to the flower is sacrifice,
For it blooms but once, and it dies.
Have you further heard of the aloe plant,
That grows in the sunny clime;
How every one of its thousand flowers,
As they drop in the blooming time,
Is an infant plant that fastens its roots
In the place where it falls on the ground,
And as fast as they drop from the dying stem,
Grow lively and lovely around?
By dying, it liveth a thousand-fold
In the young that spring from the death of the old.
Have you heard the tale of the pelican,
The Arabs' Gimel el Bahr,
That lives in the African solitudes,
Where the birds that live lonely are?
Have you heard how it loves its tender young,
And cares and toils for their good,
It brings them water from mountain far,
And fishes the seas for their food.
In famine it feeds them--what love can devise!
The blood of its bosom--and, feeding them, dies.
Have you heard this tale--the best of them all--
The tale of the Holy and True,
He dies, but His life, in untold souls
Lives on in the world anew;
His seed prevails, and is filling the earth,
As the stars fill the sky above.
He taught us to yield up the love of life,
For the sake of the life of love.
His death is our life, His loss is our gain;
The joy for the tear, the peace for the pain.
--Selected.
四月二十六日
“我也将万事当作有损的，因我以认识我主基督耶稣为至宝”（腓三：8）。
要发光必须先有损失。发光体受了相当的损失以后，才会有光照出来。烛不燃烧，根本便没有光。有了燃烧，然后才能有光。我们自己若不先有损失，就不能有益于人。燃烧好似人生中的痛苦。信徒必须经过痛苦，然后才能有益于人。可是我们见了痛苦，却常喜欢逃避。
当我们被唤到一旁，在苦痛中磨炼的时候，例如病倒了，或煎熬于患难之中，我们所有的活动都遭停止，这种时候，我们觉得自己已不再有何贡献了。
但是，假若我们有耐心，肯服从主，我们就可确信，我们在受苦难中，对世界的贡献，更大于活动工作。我们此时正如蜡烛在燃烧，光明灿烂是从燃烧中发出来的。
明天的荣耀，是因今天的痛苦。
许多人只要荣耀，不要十架；只要发光，不要燃烧；但是我告诉你：十架是冠冕的先锋；没有十架；就没有冠冕。
你可曾听说过，热带有一种名曰“芦荟”植物，无声无臭生长了一百年，才到它开花的时候。顶端长出一个奇妙的蓓蕾，这蓓蕾里开出一千朵美丽的奇葩。成为热带所夸耀花中之后。然而这植物的开花，对它却是牺牲，因为只开一次花，开过就枯萎死亡了。
你可曾更听闻过，热带的植物“芦荟”更奇妙的是，那一千朵花落到地上，立刻在土中生根，成为芦荟的幼苗。也就是在它母株枯萎的时候，花就纷纷落地，于是下一代的芦荟就蓬勃生长了起来。一个生命的死亡，换得了一千个新的生命。
你可曾听说过，在非洲的荒山里，有一种鸟名曰鹈鹉，阿拉伯人称之为“吉美，艾，巴尔”。它对于后一代的爱护，辛劳，甚之牺牲，也是无微不至的。它从遥远的地方，带着泉水给小鸟喝，还从海中捉了鱼作他子女的粮食，在找不到食物饥荒时节，他竟用自己胸口的血，去喂饱小鸟，自己由此而牺牲了生命。
你已听到了芦荟与鹈鹉之牺牲自己，以培植更多新的生命，使我们联想到一个更伟大的故事，就是我们的救主耶稣，神圣与真理的化身，他牺牲了，但他的生命，永留在人间，在无数灵魂中获得了新生，他那生命的种子，播满了大地，多得象星星布满了天空。他教我们为了爱的生命，放弃对生命的留恋。他的牺牲成了我们的光明，他的损失，即是我们的收获，也是流泪者的欢乐，痛苦者的安慰。