On all bare heights shall be their pasture”(Isa. 49:9, RV
Toys and trinkets are easily won, but the greatest things are greatly bought. The top-most place of power is always bought with blood. You may have the pinnacles if you have enough blood to pay. That is the conquest condition of the holy heights everywhere. The story of real heroisms is the story of sacrificial blood. The chiefest values in life and character are not blown across our way by vagrant winds. Great souls have great sorrows.
Geat truths are dearly bought, the common truths
Such as men give and take from day to day
Come in the common walk of easy life
Blown by the careless wind across our way.
Great truths are greatly won, not found by chance
Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream
But grasped in the great struggle of the soul
Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream.
But in the day of conflict, fear and grief
When the strong hand of God, put forth in might
Plows up the subsoil of the stagnant heart
And brings the imprisoned truth seed to the light.
Wrung from the troubled spirit, in hard hours
Of weakness, solitude, perchance of pain
Truth springs like harvest from the well-plowedfield
And the soul feels it has not wept in vain.
The capacity for knowing God enlarges as we are brought by Him into circumstances which oblige us to exercise faith; so, when difficulties beset our path let us thank God that He is taking trouble with us, and lean hard upon Him. ━Selected