it in that way. When we "go forward," then it is that
God meets us with His Grace.

If Moses had stayed in Horeb until he got the grace he needed, he
never would have started for Egypt at all. But when he had set out,
God met him in the way and blessed him day by day as he needed. Many
grow discouraged because there is a little opposition; but if we are
going to work for God we must expect opposition. No real work was
ever done for God without opposition. If you think that you are
going to have the approval of a godless world, and of cold
Christians, as you launch out into the deep with your net, you are
greatly mistaken. A man said to me some time ago, that when he was
converted he commenced to do some work in connection with the
Church; he was greatly discouraged because some of the older
Christians threw cold water on him, so he gave up the whole thing.

I pity a man who cannot take a little cold water without being any
the worse for it. Why, many of the Christians in old times had to go
through the fire, and did not shrink from it. A little cold water
never hurts any one.

Others say they have so many cares and troubles, they have as much
as they can carry. Well, a good way to forget your trouble is--to go
and help some one else who is carrying a heavier burden than
yourself. It was when Job began to pray for his friends that he
forgot his own troubles. Paul gloried in his infirmity, and in the
tribulations he had to undergo, so that the power of Christ might
all the more rest upon him. He gloried in the Cross: and you must
bear in mind that the Cross was not so easy to bear in his day as it
is in ours. Every one was speaking against it. "I glory in the Cross
of Christ," he said. When a man gets to that point, do you tell me
that God cannot use him to build up His kingdom? In his second
letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of "the thorn in the flesh;"
he prayed the Lord to take it away. The Lord said He was not going
to take it away: but He would give His servant grace to bear it. So
the apostle learned to thank God for the thorn, because he got more
grace. It is when the days are dark that people are brought nearer
to God. I suppose that is what Paul meant.

If there is any child of God who has a "thorn in the flesh," God has
grace enough to help you to bear it if you will but go to Him for
it. The difficulty is that so many are looking at their troubles and
sorrows, instead of looking toward the glorious r