第二十六周 黑夜歌声
“黑夜我要歌颂。”（诗42:8）
诗： 魂间满你灵、力、爱──天然除净的光景。
平安深广逾洋海，从此全人享稳静；
我神原来就是爱；凭灵能以知究竟。
每步不在他之外，主卫我魂常坚定。
黑夜这歌神赐下，荣耀颂赞永归祂。
最重要的得胜，常是在我们最怕失败的时候来临；照样，最喜乐而有光彩的诗歌，也是在那凶险急难的日子，迫使我们倚靠神的时候得到的。
生离死别，于我深感可怕，但在灵里却一无其事……。主耶稣作我们彼此的联系，不管距离多远，这条爱的联系，总不会中断。但如果没有祂，就是距离最近，也不能联系。称谢祂至圣的名，因祂的慈爱，永远长存！
祂使我们与世界各方面断绝，把我们连结于祂那作成的新造。
神的手始终是好过人的手；其中的严厉，也是好过世界的恩宠。神的手总是受祂自己爱的支配，而爱又受祂那完全智慧的支配，这一切我们不外会渐渐明白。
神使属祂的人，都感到有祂的扶持，所以今世所有的烦拢，都值得忍受。
我们的魂，天天都需要宝血的安慰。
要显明基督的丰满与恩典，破碎的器皿常比完整的器皿更好用。
主良善的手常在我身上，即使（特别是）在痛苦的事上，也是这样，约伯如何亨通的历史是毋庸多说的，但圣灵却详细的把他在难处中一切事情，都给我们记下来，这是值得叙述的，好叫属神的人得着益处，一直到这世代的末了。在这件事上，人会看见神的工作，愿我们完全信靠祂。
基督教生命的种子，是从神儿子的眼泪中撒出去的。到那日，祂必看见他劳苦的功效。因此在所有的事奉中（我们必须立足心志），若要有真实的祝福，我们必须在世界的反对中亲历忧患。就是在教会里，如果我们仰望得见基督的完全彰显，必有试炼上失败上，和缺欠上的更大忧患。
天然方面是想避免痛苦，然而当痛苦临到时，若是我们与神同在，力量与喜乐，也必一无所缺，在我们个人所经历的小难处中，我发觉叫我最受磨炼的，不是在试炼的时候，而是在等候试炼的时候。在试炼中，我安稳平静，没有半点的不安，但等候试炼的时候，却是烦躁莫名试炼来临而具有唬吓威势时我们就盘算恩量；但试炼既至，我们就在其中注目望主了。
那必须作的工作，若不需经过忧患即可作成的话，主必不会使爱患临到……主的大爱，远超我们的意念。信靠祂……，祂若打击一下，请你安心，祂要给你的比祂取去的更多。
失掉母亲，总是极大无比的损失。……也只有母亲才能是母亲，但神却能作我们的一切，祂能在我们一切忧患中保护我们。
TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK SONGS OF THE NIGHT
“In the night his song shall be with me.” Psalm 42:8
And oh I how deep the peace when, nature gone,
Thy Spirit fills the soul, strengthened with might,
With love divine; and God as love is known!
Lord! keep my soul, and guide my steps aright.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Praise be for ever His who giveth songs by night.
The most important victory has often come when we have been most afraid of being beaten; the brightest songs when an evil day has forced us to lean on God.
To me partings go dreadfully deep. In spirit all is well. … Jesus is the bond which no distance breaks and no nearness can give without Him, and which will, blessed be His name, last for ever.
He weans us in every way from this world, that He may attach us to that one for which He has created us anew.
God’s hand is always better than man’s; His seeming harshness even is better than the world’s favour; the spring which guides it is always love, and love directed by perfect wisdom, which we shall understand by and by.
He makes His own feel that His support is worth all the trouble in the world.
The soul needs daily the comfort of the blood.
Broken vessels are often better than whole ones to shew the sufficiency and grace of Christ.
His good hand is upon us, even (and very particularly) in things that are painful. It was not worth while to give a long history of the prosperity of Job, but the Holy Spirit of God has given us details of all that took place in his difficulties. It was worth while; and it is for the profit of His own to the end of the age. It is there that the work of our God is found. May He give us to have entire confidence in Him.
Christianity was sown in the tears of the Son of God. It is the travail of His soul which He will see in that day. So in all service (and we must make up our minds to it) where there is to be real blessing there must be the sorrow of the world’s opposition, and even in the church the greater sorrow of trials, of failure, and shortcoming, where we desire to see Christ fully represented.
Nature, of course, shrinks from suffering: still, when it comes, if we are with God, strength and joy are there. I have found in the little difficulties I have had much more trial in expecting trial than when it was there. When there I was calm and quiet and in no way uneasy. Whereas I was when expecting it: Out of it, if it threatens you are thinking of it. In it, you are looking out of it to the Lord.
If the needed work can be done without the sorrow, He will not send the sorrow. … His love is far better than our will. Trust Him. … If He strikes, be assured He will give more than He takes away.
[The loss of] a mother … is always an immense loss …. No one can be a mother but a mother, but God can be everything to us, and towards us in all our cares.”