uel and without love for him. Finally the father
loosened all the screws and said, "Son, stand up," and for the first
time in his life the boy stood erect. Often has that son, now a
gray-haired man, stood over the grave of that father, long since dead,
and bedewed the grave with his tears, and thanked God that he had a
father who was true enough to continue the suffering until the
terrible deformity was corrected. The father may have turned the
screws one thread too much, but the Father in Heaven makes no
mistakes, and far beyond the grave many of the redeemed will praise
Him, when they understand, for the sufferings and afflictions and
burdens they were led to endure here.

"Choose for us, Lord, nor let our weak preferring
Cheat us of good Thou hast for us designed.
Choose for us, Lord; Thy wisdom is unerring,
And we are fools and blind."

With the reader this may seem mere theory; he may feel that it cannot
explain all the seemingly unfathomable mystery of suffering in the
lives of many of the redeemed, the real children of God. Let the
reader consider two things: first, that as a juror, he would not form
a judgment till all the evidence had been placed before the jury.
God's purpose in each case, and what God actually accomplishes in each
case, in the development of character,--these have not yet been placed
before the jury; but, backed up by many fulfilled prophecies, by the
character of Jesus Christ, by His resurrection, by what He has
accomplished in the world, we have God's solemn assurance that _He
will yet place this evidence before the jury_.

Second, let the reader remember that with God character counts more
than comfort. What father would prefer his son to be a brutal,
ignorant pugilist, enjoying food and drink, physical life,--to a
useful, noble, highly educated, refined, learned son who could "listen
in the orange groves of Verona to the sweet vows of Juliet, or to the
blind bard's harp as he strikes the chords but seldom struck
harmonious with the morning stars, or to the music of the spheres as
they hymn His praises around their Creator's throne"? Far more than
the earthly father would choose the latter for his son, does the
Heavenly Father value the soul and its development above that of the
body.

Could God's redeemed people only learn that perfection of character
comes only through suffering, that as certain as God is true, a
blessing will come from every sorrow, every burde