Last summer I had a flower bed of asters that nearly covered my garden in the country. They were planted late in the season, but how beautiful they were! While the outer portion of the plants were still producing fresh flowers, the tops had gone to seed, and when an early frost came, I found that the radiant beauty of the blossoms had withered. All I could say at this point was, “Oh well, I guess the season has been too much for them, and they have died.” So I wished them a fond farewell.

After this I no longer enjoyed looking at the flower bed, for it seemed to be only a graveyard of flowers. Yet several weeks ago one of the gardeners called my attention to the fact that across the entire garden, asters were now sprouting up in great abundance. It appeared that every plant I thought the winter had destroyed had replanted fifty to take its place. What had the frost and the fierce winter wind done?

They had taken my flowers and destroyed them, casting them to the ground. They had walked across them with their snowy feet and, once finished with their work, said, “This is the end of you.” And yet in the spring, for every one destroyed, fifty witnesses arose and said, “It is through ‘dying . . . we live on.’”

As it is in the plant world, so it is in God’s kingdom. Through death came everlasting life. Through crucifixion and the tomb came the throne and the palace of the eternal God. Through apparent defeat came victory.

So do not be afraid of suffering or defeat. It is through being “struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:9) and through being broken to pieces, and those pieces being torn to shreds, that we become people of strength. And it is the endurance of one believer that produces a multitude. Others may yield to the appearance of things and follow the world. They may blossom quickly and find momentary prosperity, but their end will be one of eternal death. HENRY WARD BEECHER

Measure your life by loss and not by gain, Not by the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth. For love’s strength is found in love’s sacrifice, And he who suffers most has most to give.

To one who asked him the secret of service, Mr. George Mueller replied: “There was a day when I died, utterly died to George Mueller”—and, as he spoke, he bent lower and lower until he almost touched the floor—“to his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame of even my brethren and friends. Since then I have studied to show myself approved only unto God.”

We may not understand nor know Just how the giant oak trees throw Their spreading branches wide, Nor how upon the mountainside The dainty wildflowers grow.

We may not understand nor see Into the depth and mystery Of suffering and tears; Yet, through the stress of patient years The flowers of sympathy Spring up and scatter everywhere Their perfume on the fragrant air— But lo! the seed must die, If it would bloom and multiply And ripened fruitage bear.

THOMAS KIMBER

Look at that splendid oak! Where was it born? In a grave. The acorn was put into the ground, and in that grave it sprouted and sent up its shoots. And was it only one day that it stood in the grave? No, every day for a hundred years it has stood there, and in that place of death it has found its life. “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”

How shall my leaves fly singing in the wind unless my roots shall wither in the dark? PERSIAN POET

We having the same spirit of faith.

As chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.