View source for LOVE IN CHASTISEMENT

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<p> <em>&quot;As many as I <strong>love</strong> — I rebuke and chasten.&quot;</em> — Revelation 3:19<br><br>
Sorrowing Believer! what could you wish more than this? Your <em>furnace </em>is severe; but look at this assurance of Him who lit it. Love is the <em>fuel </em>that feeds its flames! Its every <em>spark </em>is love! It is <em>kindled </em>by your heavenly Father's hand — and <em>designed </em>as a pledge of His special love. How many of His dear children has He so rebuked and chastened; and all, all for one reason, &quot;I <em>love </em>them!&quot; The myriads in glory have passed through these <em>furnace-fires</em> — there they were chosen — there they were purified, sanctified, and made &quot;vessels fit for the Master's use;&quot; the <em>dross </em>and the <em>alloy </em>purged — that the pure metal might remain.<br><br>
And are you to claim <em>exemption </em>from the same discipline? Are you to think it strange concerning these same fiery trials that may be<em>purifying </em>you? Rather exult in them — as your <em>adoption privilege</em>. Do not envy those who are strangers to the <em>refining flames</em> — who are &quot;without chastisement.&quot;<br><br>
You should surely rather have the severest discipline — with a Father's love; than the fullest earthly cup — without that Father's smile. Oh! for grace to say, when the <em>furnace </em>is hottest, and the <em>rod </em>sorest, &quot;Yes, Father, for this was Your good pleasure!&quot; And what, after all, is the severest of your <em>chastisements</em>, in comparison with what your <em>sins </em>have deserved? Do you murmur under a Father's correcting love? What would it have been to have stood the wrath of an un-propitiated Judge, and that, too, forever? Surely, in the light of eternity, the heaviest pang of earth — is indeed &quot;a light affliction!&quot;