The cry of every breaking heart:

“Why were we born for this?

Evil alone is made our part

And nothing of earth’s bliss.

Why didst thou give us human birth

If we may know no love on earth?”

The cry of each despairing mind

Ascends before love’s throne:

“Behold us, God! or art thou blind?

Can we be blamed alone?

If thou be there, then answer us,

Why make us? or why make us thus?”

And love’s voice answers from a cross:

“I bear it all with you;

I share with you in all your loss,

I will make all things new.

None suffer in their sin alone,

I made—I bear—and I atone.”

There was a long silence when the song ended and then the King said: “You know, Grace and Glory, ‘It is enough for the disciple to be as his Lord,’ and to learn also to overcome evil with good. There is absolutely no experience, however terrible, or heartbreaking, or unjust, or cruel, or evil, which you can meet in the course of your earthly life, that can harm you if you will but let me teach you how to accept it with joy; and to react to it triumphantly as I did myself, with love and forgiveness and with willingness to bear the results of wrong done by others. Every trial, every test, every difficulty and seemingly wrong experience through which you may have to pass, is only another opportunity granted to you of conquering an evil thing and bringing out of it something to the lasting praise and glory of God.

“You sons and daughters of Adam, in all your suffering and sorrow, are the most privileged of all beings, for you are to be perfected through suffering and to become the sons and daughters of God with his power to overcome evil with good. If only you realized your destiny, how you would rejoice at every experience of trial and tribulation, and even in the persecution which comes your way. You would ‘count it all joy.’ You would take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions and distresses for Christ’s sake ‘for when you are weak, then you learn how to be made strong.’

“Ponder over the things which I have told you up here on the Mountain of Joy, and as we go down now into the valley and you meet again with the evil and cruel things which torment your relatives down there—yes, and with their unloving reactions to your desire to share your joy with them—remember the lesson which you have learned up here on this mountain and ‘count it all joy,’ for it all constitutes a glorious opportunity whereby you may learn to overcome evil with good and to share in the victory of love.”