1 Thessalonians 3:4 For truly, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and you know. Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things. Far up the mountain sides lies a block of granite, and says to itself "How happy am I in my serenity — above the winds, above the trees, almost above the flight of birds! Here I rest age after age, and nothing disturbs me!" Yet, what is it? It is only a bare block of granite, jutting out of the cliff, and its happiness is the happiness of death. By and by comes the miner, and with strong and repeated strokes he drills a hole in its top, and the rock says, "What does this mean?" Then the black powder is poured in, and with a blast that makes the mountain echo the block is blown asunder, and goes crashing down the valley. "All!" it exclaims as it falls, "why this rending?" Then some saws to fashion it; and humbled now and willing to be nothing, it is borne away from the mountain and conveyed to the city. Now it is chiselled and polished till, at length, finished in beauty it is raised high in the air to be the top stone on some monument of the country's glory. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know. |
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