[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0203":3},"FEBRUARY 3\r\nAnd immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness (Mark 1:12).\r\nIt seemed a strange proof of Divine favor. \"Immediately.\"\r\nImmediately after what? After the opened heavens and the\r\ndove-like peace and voice of the Father's blessing, \"Thou are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.\" It is no abnormal\r\nexperience. Thou, too, hast passed through it 0 my soul. Are not the times of thy deepest depression just the moments that follow thy loftiest flight? Yesterday thou wert soaring far in the\r\nfirmament and singing in the radiance of the mom; today thy wings\r\nare folded and thy song silent. At noon thou wert basking in the sunshine of a Father's smile; at eve thou art saying in the\r\nwilderness, \"My way is hid from the Lord.\"\r\nNay, but my soul, the very suddenness of the change is a proof that it is not revolutionary.\r\nHast thou weighed the comfort of that word \"Immediately\"? Why does it come so soon after the blessing? Just to show that it is the\r\nsequel to the blessing. God shines on thee to make thee fit for\r\nlife's desert-places--for its Gethsemanes, for its Calvaries. He\r\nlifts thee up that He may give thee strength to go further down; He illuminates thee that He may send thee into the night that He may  make thee a help to the helpless.\r\nNot at all times art thou worthy of the wilderness; thou art only\r\nworthy of the wilderness after the splendors of Jordan. Nothing but the Son's vision can fit thee for the Spirit's burden; only the\r\nglory of the baptism can support the hunger of the desert. --George Matheson.\r\nAfter benediction comes battle.\r\nThe time of testing that marks and mightily enriches a soul's\r\nspiritual career is no ordinary one, but a period when all hell\r\nseems let loose, a period when we realize our souls are brought into a net when we know that God is permitting us to be in the\r\ndevil's hand. But it is a period which always ends in certain\r\ntriumph for those who have committed the keeping of their souls to Him, a period of marvelous \"nevertheless afterward\" of abundant    usefulness, the sixty-fold that surely follows. --Aphra White.",1783499792048]