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发帖数: 925 | 1 http://www.glorypress.com/devotional/FaithAndLifeOneYearBook.asp?bid=1
因死得生
经文: 「似乎要死，却是活着。」（林后六9）
有一年夏天，我在乡间园子里修了一个长方形的花圃，种著紫菀花，花开茂盛
。但它们下种是很晚，当枝顶结子的时候，两侧还在萌出鲜花。初霜降临后，我发现那
些艳丽的花朵枯萎了，我叹道：「唉，它们受不住这里的气候，都完了。」我向它们告
别。
我不愿再去看那花圃，它的样子落到好相像一个花的坟场。但到了翌年春天，
有一位园丁请我注意那块花圃，已长满了极其茂盛的紫菀；我去一看，只见那我认为在
去年冬季枯萎而死的每一株紫菀，却已经繁殖了五十株新苗。去冬的冰霜和寒风，完成
了繁殖紫菀的任务，我问自己：是破坏呢，是建设呢！
当那去年冬季的寒风将紫菀花横施摧折，吹掷满地，用沾雪的脚任意践踏，并
且说：「这是你们的末日。」到了第二年的春天，每一枝残花的所在却长出了根来，说
道：「我们因死得生。」
在植物界如此，在天国也是如此。从死亡里茁出了不朽的生命。永生真神的宝
座和宫殿，得自十字架和坟墓。胜利得自失败。
不要怕受苦，不要怕失败。
凡是伟人常被打倒而未被消灭，先被折磨得片片粉碎，然后才能变成伟人，才
能力敌千军；而那些只顾眼前的人，随俗浮沉，必然昙花一现，在短暂的兴旺之后，随
即消逝，而永劫不复。 ──皮邱（Beecher）
By Death We Live
Scripture: "As dying and behold we live" (2 Cor. 6:9).
I had a bed of asters last summer, that reached clear across my
garden in the country. Oh, how gaily they bloomed. They were planted late.
On the sides were yet fresh blossoming flowers, while the tops had gone to
seed. Early frosts came, and I found one day that that long line of radiant
beauty was seared, and I said, "Ah! the season is too much for them; they
have perished"; and I bade them farewell.
I disliked to go and look at the bed, it looked so like a graveyard
of flowers. But, four or five weeks ago one of my men called my attention to
the fact that along the whole line of that bed there were asters coming up
in the greatest abundance; and I looked, and behold, for every plant that I
thought the winter had destroyed there were fifty plants that it had planted
. What did those frosts and surly winds do?
They caught my flowers, they slew them, they cast them to the ground
, they trod with snowy feet upon them, and they said, leaving their work, "
This is the end of you." And the next spring there were for every root,
fifty witnesses to rise up and say, "By death we live."
And as it is in the floral tribe, so it is in God's kingdom. By
death came everlasting life. By crucifixion and the sepulchre came the
throne and the palace of the Eternal God. By overthrow came victory.
Do not be afraid to suffer. Do not be afraid to be overthrown.
It is by being cast down and not destroyed; it is by being shaken to
pieces, and the pieces torn to shreds, that men become men of might, and
that one a host; whereas men that yield to the appearance of things, and go
with the world, have their quick blossoming, their momentary prosperity and
then their end, which is an end forever.--Beecher |
