Reasons for Affliction   “The reasons why the Lord is pleased to have His people exercised, troubled, and vexed with the operations of sinful corruptions [are these]:  partly to keep them humble and low in their own eyes; and partly to put them upon the use of all divine helps, whereby sin may be subdued and mortified; and partly, that they may live upon Christ for the perfecting the work of sanctification; and partly, to wean them from things below, and to make them heart-sick of their absence from Christ, and to maintain in them bowels of compassion towards others that are subject to the same infirmities with them; and that they may distinguish between a state of grace and a state of glory, and that heaven may be more sweet to them in the close.”       -- Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)   ----------------- The Doomed Man   There is a time, we know not when, A point we know not where, That marks the destiny of men, For glory or despair.   There is a line, by us unseen, That crosses every path; The hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath.     -- J. A. Alexander (1800-1860)   “Worship God”   Lord, if Thy word had been “Worship Me not, For I than thou am holier:  draw not near:” We had besieged Thy Face with prayer and tear And manifold abasement in our lot, Our crooked ground, our thorned and thistled plot; Envious of flawless Angels in their sphere, Envious of brutes, and envious of the mere Unliving and undying unbegot. But now Thou hast said, “Worhip Me, and give Thy heart to Me, My child:” now therefore we Think twice before we stoop to worship Thee: We proffer half a heart while life is strong And strung with hope; so sweet it is to live! Wilt Thou not wait?  Yea, Thou has waited long.   -- Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)