A condition in chastisement

"If need be!" (1 Peter 1:6)

Three gracious words! Not one of all my tears has been shed for nothing! Not one stroke of the rod has been unneeded — or might have been spared! Your heavenly Father loves you too much, and too tenderly, to bestow harsher correction than your case requires!

Is it loss of health — or loss of wealth — or loss of beloved friends? Be still! there was a needs be! We are no competent judges of what that "needs be" is; often through aching hearts we are forced to exclaim, "Your judgments are a great deep!"

But God here pledges Himself, that there will not be one unnecessary thorn in the believer's crown of suffering. No burden too heavy will be laid on him; and no sacrifice too great will be exacted from him. He will "temper the wind — to the shorn lamb."

Whenever the "need be" has accomplished its end — then the rod is removed, the chastisement suspended, and the furnace quenched. "If need be!" Oh! what a pillow on which to rest your aching head — that there is not a drop in all your bitter cup — but what a God of love saw to be absolutely necessary!

Will you not trust His heart — even though you cannot trace the mystery of His dealings? Not too curiously prying into the "WHY it is?" or "HOW it is?" — but satisfied that "SO it is," and, therefore, that all must be well!

J.M.D.