"Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials" 1 Peter 1:6What a blessed motto and superscription over the dark lintels of sorrow: "There is a necessity for this!" Every arrow from the quiver of God is feathered with it! Write it, child of affliction, over every trial that your God sees fit to send!If He calls you down from the sunny mountain-heights, to the darksome valleys--hear Him saying: "There is a necessity for this!" If He has dashed the cup of earthly prosperity from your lips, curtailed your creature comforts, diminished your "basket and store"--hear Him saying: "There is a necessity for this!" If He has ploughed and furrowed your soul with severe bereavement, extinguished light after light in your dwelling--hear Him thus stilling the tumult of your grief, "There is a necessity for this!" Yes, believe it--there is some profound reason for your trial, which at present may be indiscernible to you. No furnace will be hotter than He sees to be needed.Be still, and know that He is God! That "necessity," remember, is in the hands of Infinite Love, infinite Wisdom, and infinite Power! Trust Him in little things, as well as in great things; in trifles as well as in disasters. Seek to have an unquestioning faith. Though other paths, doubtless, would have been selected by you had the choice been in your hands--be it yours to listen to His voice at every turn of the road, saying, "This is the way, walk in it!"We may not be able to understand it now, but one day we shall find that affliction is one of God's most blessed ministers, sent forth to "minister to those who are heirs of salvation."Sorrowful one! There . .