Streams in the Desert March 13 Daily Devotional

Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints (Rev. 15.3).
The following incident is related by Mrs. Charles Spurgeon, who was a great sufferer for more than a quarter of a century.
"At the close of a dark and gloomy day, I lay resting on my couch
as the deeper night drew on; and though all was bright within my
cozy room, some of the external darkness seemed to have entered Into my soul and obscured its spiritual vision. Vainly I tried to
see the Hand which I knew held mine, and guided by fog enveloped feet along a steep and slippery path of suffering In sorrow of
heart I asked,
"'Why does my Lord thus deal with His child? Why does He so often send sharp and bitter pain to visit me? Why does He permit
lingering weakness to hinder the sweet service I long to render to His poor servants?'
"These fretful questions were quickly answered, and through a
strange language; no interpreter was needed save the conscious whisper of my heart
"For a while silence reigned in the little room, broken only by the crackling of the oak log burning in the fireplace. Suddenly I heard a sweet soft sound, a little, clear, musical note, like the tender
WU of a robin beneath my window.
" 'What can it be? surely no bird can be singing out there at this time of the year and night'

"Again came the faint plaintive notes, so sweet, so melodious, yet mysterious enough to provoke our wonder. My friend exclaimed,
" 'It comes from the log on the fire!' The fire was letting loose the imprisoned music from the old oak's inmost heart!
"Perchance he had gamered up this song in the days when all was
well with him, when birds twittered merrily on his branches, and the soft sunlight flecked his tender leaves with gold. But he had grown old since then, and hardened; ring after ring of knotty
growth had sealed up the long-forgotten melody, until the fierce tongues of the flames came to consume his callousness, and the vehement heart of the fire wrung from him at once a song and a sacrifice. 'Ah,' thought 1, 'when the fire of affliction draws
songs of praise from us, then indeed we are purified, and our God is glorified!'
"Perhaps some of us are like this old oak log, cold, hard,
insensible; we should give forth no melodious sounds, were it not for the fire which kindles around us, and releases notes of trust
In Him, and cheerful compliance with His will.
"'As I mused the fire burned,' and my soul found sweet comfort In the parable so strangely set forth before me.
"Singing in the fire! Yes, God helping us, if that is the only way
to get harmony out of these hard apathetic hearts, let the furnace be heated seven times hotter than before."