"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 severe. 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.
八月二十四日
「我样样都有，并且有余。」（腓四18）
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，他们就出来了。他们是生在黑暗里的。
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像今天这样浓郁美丽的。神的话替他揭开了一个他以前没有看见过的宝藏。
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他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。
光越强烈，影越黑暗。