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“Why must sinners' ways prosper? and why must Disappointment all I endeavour end?".
But unlike Hopkins, not many of them ultimately seem to realise the purpose behind this seeming injustice. These calamities, these disappointments which are showered upon you in spite of your devotion are truly a means to test the strength and the purity of your devotion. It is a trial by ordeal, to separate the chaff from the grain, to ensure that only the most utterly devoted can enter the sanctum sanctorum of the true devotees. Does not the goldsmith use the acid test to separate the base metals from pure gold: Is it not because the base metal tries to pass itself off as gold: If brass were to say, “I am brass,” what goldsmith would waste his time and money giving it the acid test? It is only when a piece of metal or an ornament declares itself made of true gold that the goldsmith takes the trouble to put it to the acid test.
This is a fairly common feature of life. We wish to become saints, seers, yet when the time comes to bear hardships with fortitude, we complain to the Lord and petition him: “O Lord, why dost Thou make me suffer?" But I tell you, you should rather say to the Lord, “My Lord, I have accepted Thee as my
