CHASTENING.
Reading edition
O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.—Psalm vi. 1.
Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.—Psalm xciv. 12.
Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.—Hebrews, xii. 6.
O keep up life and peace within, If I must feel thy chastening rod! Yet kill not me, but kill my sin; And let me know Thou art my God. O give my soul some sweet foretaste Of that which I shall shortly see! Let faith and love cry to the last, “Come, Lord, I trust myself with Thee!” Baxter.
When urged by strong temptation to the brink Of guilt and ruin, stands the virtuous mind With scarce a step between; all-pitying Heaven, Severe in mercy, chastening in its love, Ofttimes in dark and awful visitation, Doth interpose, and call the wanderer back To the straight path, to be for ever after A firm, undaunted, onward-bearing traveller, Strong in humility, who swerves no more. Joanna Baillie.
So, Christian! though gloomy and sad be thy days, And the tempest of sorrow encompass thee black; Though no sunshine of promise or hope sheds its rays To illumine and cheer thy life’s desolate track: Though thy soul writhes in anguish, and bitter tears flow O’er the wreck of fond joys from thy bleeding heart riven, Check thy murmuring sorrows, thou lorn one, and know That the chastened on earth are the purest for Heaven; And remember, though gloomy thy present may be, That “the Master is coming,” and coming to thee. S. D. Patterson.