On a hot summer day an aged Christian laid his heavy burden on the top of a low stone wall by the wayside to rest awhile. A very costly, well-equipped carriage, drawn by two magnificent horses, passed by; its occupant, a well-fed, red-faced gentleman, with arms folded, lay back in luxurious ease.
A friend stepped up to the aged Christian and said: “You know that grand carriage and its occupant. He is an ungodly man, yet ‘he is not plagued as other men;’ while you, believing that all the silver and the gold belong to the Lord, trusting Him and serving Him, are toiling in your old age for a bare living. How can you reconcile this with the love and righteousness of God? What do you think of God?”
The old man looked at his questioner with amazement, and the fiery dart was quenched on the shield of faith. With the greatest earnestness he replied, “Are you trying me, sir? Are you trying me? Couple heaven with it! COUPLE HEAVEN WITH IT!”
What a splendid answer! Down here the Christian is often tried. Sorrow, pain, pressure, bereavement, difficulties in making ends meet, persecution, etc. etc., often are present in his path. “Whom the Lord loves He chasteneth, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6).
How comforting to “couple heaven” with these things! How immeasurably richer the old Christian was than the ungodly landowner rolling by in his luxurious carnage! The aged Christian had the true riches.