TRIALS
BY LYNELL WATERMAN

You perhaps recall the story of the blacksmith who gave his heart to
God. Though conscientious in his living, still he was not prospering
materially. In fact, it seems that from the time of his conversion more
trouble, affliction and loss were sustained than ever before.
Everything seemed to be going wrong.

One day a friend who was not a Christian stopped at the little gorge to
talk to him. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the friend
said “it seems strange to me that so much affliction should pass over
you just at the time when you have become an earnest Christian. Of
course; I don’t want to weaken your faith in God or anything like that.
But here you are, God’s help and guidance, and yet things seem to be
getting steadily worse I can’t help wondering why it is.”

The blacksmith did not answer immediately, and it was evident that he
had thought the same question before. But finally, he said “You see
here the raw iron which I have to make into horse’s shoes. You know
what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is
red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully to shape
it as I know it should be shaped, Then I plunge it into a pail of cold
water to temper it, Then I heat it again and hammer it some more. And
this I do until it is finished,”

“But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won’t stand up under this
treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much
for it. I don’t know why it fails in the process, but I know it will
never make a good horse’s shoe.” He pointed to a heap of scrap iron
that was near the door of his shop. “Men I get a piece that cannot take
the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will never
be good for anything.”

He went on, “l know that God has been holding me in the fires of
affliction and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don’t mind, if
only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard
things my prayer is simply this, Try me in any way you wish, Lord, only
don’t throw me on the scrap heap.”

THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED BY LYNELL WATERMAN. THIS MATERIAL IS
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