Such is a striking Arab proverb. And those who have travelled in the East have seen how it is exemplified. Those parts of the earth, which have literally nothing but a magnificent deep blue sky without a cloud, and with a blazing sun shedding its light and heat day after day without interruption, are DESERT.
We may learn a wholesome spiritual lesson from this. Some Christians long for a life in which there are no drawbacks, no difficulties, no sorrows, no temptations. If they got what they long for, it would result in a spiritual desert in their souls. The very difficulties we have to face form Christian character, if they are taken in the proper way.
“Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). What a fine word is, “NEVERTHELESS!” There is always an “Afterward.” God knows what He is about.
For this reason we are exhorted to lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.
It has been noticed that whether in meat, fish or fruit, the best flavour is to be found in the temperate zones. Those parts of the world that have little rain and therefore few clouds, that have extremes of heat or cold, do not produce the delicious flavour found in the foods of temperate climes.
And has this a counterpart spiritually? We think so. We find saints, that have had their bright days and their dull days, their days, as it were, of sunshine and their days of rain, are often of a spiritual flavour that would have been impossible had their lives always been on beds of roses, and one round of peace, plenty and pleasure.
So let us thank God for the sunshine and equally thank Him for the grey day. Let us believe that our sorrows and difficulties are working out for us “the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
When good king Hezekiah was sick to death, and wept sore, in his exercise of mind he saw the true meaning of his affliction. He said, “O Lord, by these things men live” (Isa. 38:16). We would naturally have imagined that he would have said, “By these things men die.” No, he used the right word, “live.” He recognized that there is a life which is life indeed—the only life that is accepted of God, the life that turns to Him in its nature. That life endures beyond sickness and trial and the grave. It enters into heaven itself, the presence of God; for it is lived in the presence of God NOW and therefore will be for evermore.