|
「我想，現在的苦楚，若比起將來要顯於我們的榮耀，就不足介意了。」（聖經羅馬書八章18節）
我有一個天蛾的繭兒，差不多藏了一年。牠的結構非常怪異。一頭是一條細管，一頭是一個球形的囊，很像實驗室中的細頸瓶。當蛾出繭的時侯，牠必須從球形囊那裡爬過那條極細的管兒，然後才能脫身，飛翔在空中。
有一天，我恰巧看見那久囚的蟲兒開始活動了。整個的早晨，我忍耐著在牠旁邊看牠在裡面努力、奮鬥、掙扎，可是還不能進前絲毫。牠似乎再沒有可能出來了，最後我的耐心破產了。
我就想我比造物者更智慧、更慈愛，我決意要幫牠一忙。我用我的小剪刀把繭上的絲剪薄了些，讓牠出來得稍為容易一些，這正是我得意之作！看哪！一會兒，我的蛾兒很容易地爬出來了，身體是反常的臃腫，翅膀是反常的萎縮。
我守在牠旁邊，等牠徐徐地伸展它牠的翅膀，顯露牠細巧精緻的彩紋。豈知大失所望。我虛偽的溫柔竟成了禍根。可憐的蟲兒，非但不能撲著它牠帶虹的翅翼，飛翔空中，呈現牠完全的美麗，竟很痛苦地爬了一會就不壽而終了。
啊，我的智慧和慈愛害死了牠！一個沒有發育完全的蛾兒，被我強使流產了！我把這事想了又想。 ── Tract
很多時候，我們看見人們在受試煉的環境中，我們覺得他們很可憐，我們常願意把神的法則變更，照著我們的意思給他們幫助。啊！眼光淺近的人啊！我們怎麼知道，這些奮鬥和掙扎不是他們的必須呢？目光深遠的、完全的愛，為要人們得益，不能不讓他們暫時經歷艱苦的過程。我們父神的愛正是如此。
因為祂愛祂的兒女，所以才施管教，要使他們有分於祂的聖潔。有了這樣榮耀的目的，祂才不顧他們的眼淚 ── 選
****************************
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18.)
I kept for nearly a year the flask-shaped cocoon of an emperor moth. It is very peculiar in its construction. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flask, through which the perfect insect forces its way, so that a forsaken cocoon is as entire as one still tenanted, no rupture of the interlacing fibers having taken place. The great disproportion between the means of egress and the size of the imprisoned insect makes one wonder how the exit is ever accomplished at all-and it never is without great labor and difficulty. It is supposed that the pressure to which the moth’s body is subjected in passing through such a narrow opening is a provision of nature for forcing the juices into the vessels of the wings, these being less developed at the period of emerging from the chrysalis than they are in other insects.
I happened to witness the first efforts of my prisoned moth to escape from its long confinement. During a whole forenoon, from time to time, I watched it patiently striving and struggling to get out. It never seemed able to get beyond a certain point, and at last my patience was exhausted. Very probably the confining fibers were drier and less elastic than if the cocoon had been left all winter on its native heather, as nature meant it to be. At all events I thought I was wiser and more compassionate than its Maker, and I resolved to give it a helping hand. With the point of my scissors I snipped the confining threads to make the exit just a very little easier, and lo! Immediately, and with perfect ease, out crawled my moth dragging a huge swollen body and little shrivelled wings. In vain I watched to see that marvelous process of expansion in which these silently and swiftly develop before one’s eyes; and as I traced the exquisite spots and markings of divers colors which were all there in miniature, I longed to see these assume their due proportions and the creature to appear in all its perfect beauty, as it is, in truth, one of the loveliest of its kind. But I looked in vain. My false tenderness had proved its ruin. It never was anything but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully through that brief life which it should have spent flying through the air on rainbow wings.
I have thought of it often, often, when watching with pitiful eyes those who were struggling with sorrow, suffering, and distress; and I would fain cut short the discipline and give deliverance. Short-signted man! How know I that one of these pangs or groans could be spared? The far-sighted, perfect love that seeks the perfection of its object does not weakly shrink from present, transient suffering. Our Father’s love is too true to be weak. Because He loves His children, He chastises them that they may be partakers of His holiness. With this glorious end in view, He spares not for their crying. Made perfect through sufferings, as the Elder Brother was, the sons of God are trained up to obedience and brought to glory through much tribulation. --- Tract.
|