rough a soft meadow. The journey is not
likely to be all easy. Indeed, an earnest Christian life is never
easy. No one can live nobly and worthily without struggle, battle,
self-denial. One may find easy ways, but they are not the worthiest
ways. They do not lead upward to the noblest things. One reason why
many people never grasp the visions of beauty and splendor which shine
before them in early years is because they have not courage for rough
climbing.

"I reach a duty, yet I do it not,
And, therefore, climb no higher; but if done,
My view is brightened, and another spot
Seen on my mortal sun;
For be the duty high as angel's flight--
Fulfil it, and a higher will arise
Even from its ashes. Duty is our ladder to the skies,
And climbing not, we fall."

We shall need our iron shoes if we are to make the journey that leads
upward to the best possibilities of our life.

But the word is not merely a prophecy of rugged paths; it is also a
promise of shoeing for the road, whatever it may be. One who is
preparing to climb a mountain, craggy and precipitous, would not put on
silk slippers; he would get strong, tough shoes, with heavy nails in
the soles. When God sends us on a journey over steep and flinty paths
he will not fail to provide us with suitable shoes.

Asher's portion was not an accidental one; it was of God's choosing.
Nor is there any accident in the ordering of the place, the conditions,
the circumstances, of any child of God's. Our times are in God's
hands. No doubt, then, the hardnesses and difficulties of any one's
lot are part of the divine ordering for the best growth of the person's
life.

There was a compensation in Asher's rough portion. His rugged hills
had iron in them. This law of compensation runs through all God's
distribution of gifts. In the animal world there is a wonderful
harmony, often noted, between the creatures and the circumstances and
conditions amid which they are placed. The same law rules in the
providence of human life. One man's farm is hilly and hard to till,
but deep down beneath its ruggedness, buried away in its rocks, there
are rich minerals. One person's lot in life is hard, with peculiar
obstacles, difficulties and trials; but hidden in it there are
compensations of some kind. One young man is reared in affluence and
luxury. He never experiences want or self-denial, never has to
struggle with obstacles or adverse circumstance