James 1:2-4 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations;… Right back of Hackensack is a long railroad cut. In the dim twilight, when evening is far advanced, the cut is dark and gloomy. I was thinking of that one evening and I stopped to look into the entrance. I said to myself, "No one would ever imagine, just to glance in there without knowledge, that anything good could come by a way so forbidding." While I was still talking thus to myself, I felt the ground tremble, I saw the darkness light up with a sudden crimson ray, I heard a roar of ever-increasing loudness, and the black entrance of the cut was filled with a shower of sparks and a mixed plume of black and white; a ball of round fire blinded my eyes, a sound of thunder startled my ears, the earth shook up and down as though set upon springs, and then it was gone — the train had rushed by — nothing to be seen in the gloom but the little red lamp on the rear of the cars that rapidly diminished its lustre, blinked once or twice, and went out. Long after it was out of sight I heard the sound of the distant gong; and I realised that this unsightly cut had let some human happiness safely through. Some of our choicest mercies come in by way of some frowning trouble. The station where we receive them is a little further on, to be sure; but it is well to remember that if the dark way had not been traversed nothing so rich and good would have arrived. (J. W. Dally.) Parallel Verses KJV: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;WEB: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, |
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