"To make known the riches of His glory in the vessels of mercy-prepared unto glory" (Rom. 9:23).

The child of God has been convicted as having "come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Into the heart there has "shined the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6) bringing meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light and redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:12-14), entitling the believing soul to step heavenward having peace to begin with, grace to go on with, and glory to end with (Rom. 5:1, 2).

Meanwhile the glory's brightness shines on every daily experience of the soul, disclosing Satan's power, the enormity of the world's pollution, and the desperate wickedness of the natural heart. Notwithstanding such a corrupt scene and condition of heart, God is preparing vessels of mercy destined to enter His kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:12) by attracting the soul to Christ in glory (2 Cor. 3:18) and by the exercise of Fatherly discipline, putting faith to the proof by heart-searching trials, testings, sorrows, siftings, etc., which the soul is helpless to cope with, deriving no power whatever from within or from any earthly source. Poor indeed and utterly bereft are heaven-born souls, but for God's "riches in glory" made known as sufficing for victory over every hostile power and as ministering from the glory the joy and comfort of identification with the mighty Victor, who is able to subdue all things unto Himself (Phil. 3:21).

God is forming a people for His (not their own) praise and glory (Isa. 43:7, 21). Our depraved, fallen natures, the blight of the curse on earth's fairest attractions, the sinful taint of all human attainments as seen in the glory light, strip the soul of all self praise or personal credit, but display amazing grace which transforms gross material into "partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12-10), and "profiters" by "exercise" (Heb. 12:11), regarding all manner of training, sifting, or refining which the glorious Lord employs to produce self-loathing and soul-sickening abhorrence of all that is in the world "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16), so that the honest conclusion is reached that

"All below lies dark and shadowed,
Nothing here to claim the heart,
But the lonely track of sorrow,
Where of old He walked apart."

Exercises that bring about the soul's decided "refusal of evil" lead to it as definitely "choosing the good" (Isa. 7:IS) and opens to faith's apprehension the satisfying and formative delights which the glory reveals. The power "that worketh in us God's good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13) is directed by the eternal love that lifts "beggars from the dunghill to inherit the throne of glory" (1 Sam. 2:8), and by constant persistence, prepares the soul for its future "likeness to Christ" (1 John 3:2) and participation in the everlasting glories that await the "many sons the Captain of our salvation is leading to glory" (Heb. 2:10).

Divinely-implanted faith distinguished Abraham as a subject for severest trial (Heb. 11-17), while unbelieving nations were not visited with such discipline. The children of God (not unbelieving worldlings) are prepared for glory by such treatment as materials receive at the hands of the blacksmith who discards metal that will not take temper, while heating, chilling, hammering, rasping the iron he forms into useful implements. Or the painstaking efforts the potter expends on the clay from which he produces worthwhile products. Or that which the gardener employs to secure fruitful results by the sharp pruning knife. Or the husbandman who sifts and grinds the grain from which bread is made. Or the "Refiner" mentioned in Proverbs 25:4, revealing the Blessed Lord's desire to possess vessels freed from dross by the needful process of refining. We read the furnace is for gold (Prov. 17:3). He who refines, appraises the believer's value by the ransom price paid at Calvary. Stones are not cast in the furnace nor brambles pruned, and only the true child of God, "bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:20), costing the Divine Buyer "all that he had" (Matt. 13:46), is worth painstaking preparation for glory.

How blessed to contemplate the preciousness of the blood-bought soul:

"Master most holy,
My woes Thou hast borne;
Thy wages I am
For anguish and scorn,
No value myself,
Yet ransomed by Thee,
Thy blood puts a worth
Untold upon me."

Admixture such as described in Ezekiel 22:18 the Refiner abhors, and Lamentations 4:1,2 discloses His wounded feelings, but in tender love remedial measures, such as described in Psalm 66:10,12 or Mal. 3:3, He undertakes Himself to apply. The believing heart may be well assured that:

"The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
Thy dross to remove and thy gold to refine."

To His ministry of love we may attribute the "trial" and "affliction," even the extreme of passing through fire and water, yet how welcome the blessed "but," "Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place," causing the soul to learn with Job, after reciting the dealings he could not trace, that another blessed "but" entitles us to trust where we cannot trace and be assured that "He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).

Secret soul exercises, exposure of the "heart's intents," conduct us to God and disclose His secret loving thoughts. It is well to connect the "sharp," "piercing," "power" of Heb. 4:12 with "Him with whom we have to do" (ver. 13); finding instead of the action of the word proving desperately overwhelming, that a "Great High Priest" is ours (vers. 14), to succor and sustain all who "come for seasonable help in time of need."

In Hebrews 12, we have not only discipline that "for the present seemeth grievous" but also blest attraction absorbing the soul that "looks off unto Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" and, "considering Him," does not faint because of the way.

The Refiner is the Lover of our souls, who seeks the welfare of the objects of His tender affections. His voice saying "It is I, be not afraid" and the assurance, "He will perfect that which concerneth me" (Psalm 138:8), and that "all things work together for good" (Rom. 8:28), warrant our heartily committing ourselves in humble submission to all training and perfecting processes He adopts, whose perfect love, wisdom, patience, knowledge, skill, and purpose, will consummate the achievement for which His blood was shed, for which His life was given-"the presentation of His redeemed in glory" without spot or wrinkle or any such thing," (Eph. 5; 27) His heart's delight gratified by that same presentation "faultless in the presence of His glory" of those He died to win (Jude 2:4). Meanwhile such response to love "so amazing, so divine" is induced, that devotion to His loved person may afford the refreshment of heart He has asked of befriended souls, "give me to drink," and the craving of our new natures for divine joys will be satisfied, while all the world presents will possess no charm, for discipline that subdues (not improves) the old nature, ministers heavenly gladness to the new, as encouragement, sustainment, and rejoicing, are constantly reaped in the realized apprehension of the voice, the hand, and light of God.

May that glorious presentation for which the love of Jesus sought, bought, bears, and molds us, inspire such devotion to His glorious Person that will, in full accord with His mind and gratifying both His and our longings, be expressed in daily life by the glowing words of our Lord, which, by His grace, we may adopt, "I delight to do Thy will O God."

Not to do my own will,
But Thine who knowest best
How to gain Thy purpose
And souls be fully blest.

E. J. Checkley