All trials, all temptations, all strippings, all emptyings

All trials,
all temptations,
all strippings,
all emptyings


(Philpot, "The Everliving Intercessor" 1846)

The very trials and afflictions, and the sore
temptations through which God's family pass,
all eventually endear Christ to them.
 

And depend upon it, if you are a child of God,
you will sooner or later, in your travels through
this wilderness, find your need of Jesus as "able
to save to the uttermost."
 

There will be such things in your heart, and such
feelings in your mind, the temptations you will
meet with will be such, that nothing short of a
Savior that is able to save to the uttermost
can save you out of your desperate case and
felt circumstances as utterly lost and helpless.

This a great point to come to. All trials, all
temptations, all strippings, all emptyings
that do not end here are valueless, because
they lead the soul away from God.
 

But the convictions, the trials, the temptations,
the strippings, the emptyings, that bring us to
this spot: that we have nothing, and can do
nothing, but the Lord alone must do it all; these
have a blessed effect, because they eventually
make Jesus very near and dear unto us.