Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Tim. ii. i.

I WOULD arise in all Thy strength
My place on earth to fill,
To work out all my time of war
With love’s unflinching will.
Firm against every doubt of Thee
For all my future way —
To walk in Heaven’s eternal light
Throughout the changing day.
Anna L. Waring.

EVERY trouble is an opportunity to win the grace of strength. Whatever else trouble is in the world for, it is here for this good purpose: to develop strength. For a trouble is a moral and spiritual task. It is something which is hard to do. And it is in the spiritual world as in the physical, strength is increased by encounter with the difficult. A world without any trouble in it would be, to people of our kind, a place of spiritual enervation and moral laziness. Fortunately, every day is crowded with care. Every day to every one of us brings its questions, its worries, and its tasks, brings its sufficiency of trouble. Thus we get our daily spiritual exercise. Every day we are blessed with new opportunities for the development of strength of soul.
George Hodges.