[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0919":3},"SEPTEMBER 19\r\nMy Father is the husbandman (John 15:1).\r\nIt is comforting to think of trouble, in whatever form it may come to us, as a heavenly messenger, bringing us something from\r\nGod. In its earthly aspect it may seem hurtful, even destructive;\r\n\r\nbut in its spiritual out-working it yields blessing. Many of the\r\nrichest blessing which have come down to us from the past are the fruit of sorrow or pain. We should never forget that redemption,\r\nthe world's greatest blessing, is the fruit of the world's greatest\r\nsorrow. In everytime of sharp pruning, when the knife is deep and the pain is sore, it is an unspeakable comfort to read, \"My Father   is the husbandman.\"\r\nDoctor Vincent tells of being in a great hothouse where luscious\r\nclusters of grapes were hanging on every side. The owner said,\r\n\"When my new gardener came, he said he would have nothing to do with these vines unless he could cut them clean down to the stalk;\r\nand he did, and we had no grapes for two years, but this is the result\"\r\nThere Is rich suggestiveness in this interpretation of the pruning  process, as we apply it to the Christian life. Pruning seems to be destroying the vine, the gardener appears to be cutting it all\r\naway; but he looks on into the future and knows that the final\r\noutcome will be the enrichment of its life and greater abundance of fruit.\r\nThere are blessings we can never have unless we are ready to pay the price of pain. There is no way to reach them save through\r\nsuffering. --Dr. Miller.\r\nI walked a mile with Pleasure, She chattered all the way;\r\nBut left me none the wiser For all she had to say.\r\nI walked a mile with Sorrow, And ne'er a word said she;\r\nBut, oh the things I learned from her When sorrow walked with me.",1783499793867]