Toys and trinkets are easily earned, but the most valuable things carry a heavy price. The highest places of power are always bought with blood, and you can attain those pinnacles if you have enough blood to pay. That is the condition of conquering holy heights everywhere. The story of true heroics is always the story of sacrificial blood. The greatest values and character in life are not blown randomly across our path by wayward winds, for great souls experience great sorrows.

Great truths are dearly bought, the common truths, Such as we give and take from day to day, Come in the common walk of easy life, Blown by the careless wind across our way.

Great truths are greatly won, not found by chance, Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream; But grasped in the great struggle of our soul, Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream.

But in the day of conflict, fear, and grief, When the strong hand of God, put forth in might, Plows up the subsoil of our stagnant heart, And brings the imprisoned truth seed to the light.

Wrung from the troubled spirit, in hard hours Of weakness, solitude, and times of pain, Truth springs like harvest from the well-plowed field, And our soul feels it has not wept in vain.

Our capacity for knowing God is enlarged when we are brought by Him into circumstances that cause us to exercise our faith. So when difficulties block our paths, may we thank God that He is taking time to deal with us, and then may we lean heavily on Him.

He became the Son of Man that we might become the sons of God. Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, child of a peasant woman. He had neither wealth nor influence, neither training nor education; yet in infancy He startled a king; in boyhood He puzzled the doctors. In manhood He walked upon the billows and hushed the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without medicine and made no charge for His services. He never wrote a book, yet all the libraries of the world could not hold the books that could be written about Him. He never wrote a song, yet He has furnished the theme of more songs than all songwriters combined. He never founded a college, yet all the colleges together cannot boast of as many students as He.

“Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

How poor? Ask Mary! Ask the Wise Men! He slept in another’s manger. He cruised the lake in another’s boat. He rode on another man’s ass. He was buried in another man’s tomb.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away from Him. One of them denied Him; another betrayed Him and turned Him over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon the Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for His coat.

Yet, all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man as powerfully as has this one solitary life!

Great men have come and gone, yet He lives on! Death could not destroy Him! The grave could not hold Him!

“Look how the whole world has gone after him!” (John 12:19).

“Let us also go” (John 11:16).

“If you seek him, he will be found by you” (1 Chronicles 28:9).

Find Him!