Affliction Blessed

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As incense, when it is put into the fire, gives greater aroma; or as spice, when it is pounded and beaten, smells sweeter; as the earth, when it is torn up with the plow, becomes more fertile; the seed in the ground, after frost and snow and winter storms, blossoms into new life, the closer the vine is pruned to the stalk, the greater grapes it yields; the grape, when it is most pressed and beaten, makes the sweetest wine; and linen, when it is washed and wrung and beaten, is made so fairer and whiter: even so the children of God receive great benefit by persecution; for by it God washes and scours and educates and nurtures them, so that through many tribulations they may enter into their rest.

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