[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0709":3},"JULY 9\r\nI have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction (Isa 48:10).\r\nDoes not the Word come like a soft shower, assuaging the\r\nof the flame? Yes, is it not an asbestos armor, against which the heat has no power? Let the affliction come-God has chosen me.\r\nPoverty, thou mayest stride in at my door, but God is in the house\r\nalready, and He has chosen me. Sickness, thou mayest intrude; but\r\nI have a balsam ready-God has chosen me. Whatever befall me in this vale of tears, I know that He has chosen me.\r\nFear not Christian; Jesus is with thee. In all thy fiery trials,\r\nHis presence is both thy comfort and safety. He will never leave\r\none whom He has chosen for His own. \"Fear not for I am with thee,\" is His sure word of promise to His chosen ones in \"the furnace of\r\naffliction.\" --C. H. Spurgeon.\r\nPain's furnace heat within me quivers,   God's breath upon the flame doth blow; And all my heart in anguish shivers\r\nAnd trembles at the fiery glow;\r\nAnd yet I whisper, \"As God will!\" And in the hottest fire hold still.\r\nHe comes and lays my heart, all heated, On the hard anvil, minded so\r\nInto His own fair shape to beat it\r\nWith His great hammer, blow on blow; And yet I whisper, \"As God will!\"\r\nAnd at His heaviest blows hold still.\r\n\r\nHe takes my softened heart and beats it; The sparks fly off at every blow;\r\nHe turns it o'er and o'er and heats it, And lets it cool, and makes it glow;    And yet I whisper, \"As God will!\"\r\nAnd in His mighty hand hold still.\r\nWhy should I murmur? for the sorrow Thus only longer-lived would be;\r\nThe end may come, and will tomorrow, When God has done His work in me;\r\nSo I say trusting, \"As God will!\"\r\nAnd, trusting to the end, hold still. --Julius Sturm.\r\nThe burden of suffering seems a tombstone hung about our necks, while in reality it is only the weight which is necessary to keep\r\ndown the diver while he is hunting for pearls. --Richter.",1783499793193]