"Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 5:20).

It is easy to give thanks for the pleasing things. He would be ungrateful indeed, who, after having brought his petition to the Lord for some good thing and having had it abundantly answered, failed in the grace of gratitude and did not bow in thanksgiving before God. But to give thanks when everything seems to go awry; when bereavement and sorrow come into the life; when misunderstanding and false reports cause poignant anguish; when disappointments and perplexities seem to crush the heart and trouble the mind so that one hardly knows even how to pray; then, indeed, it is only the manifold grace of God controlling the inmost being that enables one to give thanks. And yet if we realize that we are but pupils in God's school where He is preparing us for service in the ages to come-service that will be beyond our highest expectations, we may well praise Him even in the midst of deepest trial. We are keeping our knightly vigil amid the darkness and the cold, preparatory to being honored by the King of kings in the Coming Day. We may rest assured that He will not permit one trial too much or one sorrow too great.

We are told in the book of Proverbs that "the fining-pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the hearts." And, blessed be His name, He sits by the fining-pot and watches intently until He sees His own countenance reflected in the molten silver. He walks in the midst of the fire with His own; and the furnace, though heated seven-fold, can but burn away the bonds, or, to change the figure, purge the dross from the gold.

With that glorious Fourth One with them, the Hebrew children did not even have the smell of fire upon their garments."

To Israel in the coming tribulation God says, "Wherefore, glorify the Lord in the fires," and the trusting soul may well rest upon the promise:"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:when thou walk-est through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."

Our blessed Lord Himself is our great Exemplar in this as in all else. He could and did give thanks in the hour of deepest trial. In Matthew 11 we see Him rejected of men, grieving over the cities in which His mightiest works had been accomplished and which had yet refused His message; with the dark shadows of the cross already falling athwart His path; and we read, "At that time"-mark it well-at that time when all was darkest and He had anguish unutterable to look forward to-"At that time Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, Father, I thank Thee." Oh, for grace to imitate Him in . this attitude, not only of subjection to the will of God but in receiving the heaviest trials from the Father's hand, knowing that all is for eventual blessing.

"Whether joy or whether trial,
All can only work for good."

We may rest assured that no trial will ever come to one of His own for which He did not see a needs-be. And,
"When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o'er life's finished story,"

we will understand as we cannot now, and we shall praise Him then as we will wish we had praised Him in the midst of the fire. H. A. Ironside