_It is for discipline that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father doth not discipline?_ (_Hebrews_ 12^{1-7}). To use or to refuse this idea of the educative opportunity in suffering makes an amazing difference to life. Says a commentator of the older school writing upon this passage in _Proverbs_: “First, _Despise not_ the discipline.... Do not meet sorrow by a mere hardihood of nature. Let your heart flow down under trouble, for this is human: let it rise up also to God, for this is divine. And secondly, _Faint not_.... This is the opposite extreme. Do not be dissolved, as it were--taken down and taken to pieces by the stroke. You should retain presence of mind and exercise your faculties. If the bold would see God in his afflictions, he would not despise; if the timid would see God in them, he would not faint.... The same stroke may fall on two men and be in the one case judgement, in the other love. You may prune branches lying withered on the ground, and also branches living in the vine. In the two cases the operation and instrument are precisely alike; but the operation on this branch has no result, and the operation on that branch produces fruitfulness.”[152] _My son, if thou comest to serve the Lord, Prepare thy soul for trial. Set thy heart aright and with constancy endure, And be not terrified in time of calamity.... For gold is tried in the fire, And acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation, Put thy trust in God and He will help thee; Order thy ways aright and set thy hope on Him_ (E. 2^{1-6}). Never in living memory has there been greater need for wise and persuasive advice how to conduct oneself in time of anxiety and affliction. In the gales of life many a ship is flung on the rocks for lack of a little good seamanship on board. But ships need care even when they are sailing summer seas; and so, because one hopes that brighter days are coming to the world and coming soon, there is room for one more counsel in conclusion. Religion, and particularly Christianity, has been robbed of half of its power over men’s souls, by reason of the absurd and tragical notion that it bears chiefly on the woes of man and very little on his joys. On this score also the Jewish proverbs preach a useful and pleasant sermon, with their natural honest desire for the good things of life and their strong and salutary conviction that in Wisdom--being that fear of the Lord which is to depart from evil--will be found a never-failing source of refreshing happiness: _The fear of the Lord is glory and exultation And gladness and a crown of rejoicing. The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, And shall give gladness and joy and length of days_ (E. I^{11, 12}; cp. Pr. 2^{10}, 3^{16}). CHAPTER XIX Faith