In everything ye are enriched by him." (1 Cor.
Have you ever seen men and women whom some disaster drove to a great act of prayer, and by and by the disaster was forgotten, but the sweetness of religion remained and warmed their souls
So have I seen a storm in later spring; and all was black, save where the lightning tore the cloud with thundering rent.
The winds blew and the rains fell, as though heaven had opened its windows. What a devastation there was! Not a spider's web that was out of doors escaped the storm, which tore up even the strong-branched oak.
But ere long the lightning had gone by, the thunder was spent and silent, the rain was over, the western wind came up with its sweet breath, the clouds were chased away, and the retreating storm threw a scarf of rainbows over her fair shoulders and resplendent neck, and looked back and smiled, and so withdrew and passed out of sight.
But for weeks long the fields held up their bands full of ambrosial flowers, and all the summer through the grass was greener, the brooks were fuller, and the trees cast a more umbrageous shade, because the storm passed by--though all the rest of the earth had long ago forgotten the storm, its rainbows and its rain. --Theodore Parker.
God may not give us an easy journey to the Promised Land, but He will give us a safe one.--Bonar.
It was a storm that occasioned the discovery of the gold mines of India. Hath not a storm driven some to the discovery of the richer mines of the love of God in Christ
Is it raining, little flower
Be glad of rain
Too much sun would wither thee
Twill shine again.
The clouds are very black, 'tis true
But just behind them shines the blue.
Art thou weary, tender heart
Be glad of pain
In sorrow sweetest virtues grow
As flowers in rain.
God watches, and thou wilt have sun
When clouds their perfect work have done.
Lucy Larcom.