The days of affliction are days of blessing and purging, and at such a time God draws very near to his children. (Zech. 13:9.) They are also testing days, so much so that the words "affliction" and "trial" came to be used interchangeably. They are times that try men's souls, like the fierce winds try the oak, and either uproot it or make it take stronger hold. Some men grow reckless in their sufferings and plunge into sin; some become humbler, purer, more established in their submission to God. How supremely important it is in such crises to hold fast to God; to keep faith and hope and loyalty; to flee to God, not from him; to stand fast when all winds and floods would sweep you along! That, rather than sweetness of spirit, constituted the patience of job. That is the "temptation" which if a man endures, God will give him a crown of life. (James 1:12.) That is the proving of our faith, of which Peter says that it shall turn unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ. (1 Pet. 1:7.) It was in great stress that the psalmist wrote: "My soul fainteth for thy salvation; but I hope in thy word. . . . I am become like a wine-skin in the smoke; yet [173] do I not forget thy statutes. . . . They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts." (Ps. 119:81-87.) And afterwards, when the clouds were passed and the clear vision came, he saw that "unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction." (Verse 92.) So do all God's faithful ones live to be glad that they did not grow reckless, but stood fast in the days of adversity.

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