GRACE GEMS -

"This doctrine leads us away from the vain idea of chance. We are not wounded by arrows shot at a venture, but we smart by the determinate counsel of the God of Heaven. An overruling hand is everywhere present, preventing or permitting affliction. No one shaft of disease is ever let fly by stealth, from the bow of death. It was a wise providence which selected Trophimus to be sick.

... If not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father, then surely not a child of the divine family is laid low without His sacred will. Chance is a base heathenish idea...

Also, we may not think a shade the less of Trophimus because he is sick at Miletus; he is probably a far better man than any of us, and perhaps for that very reason he is more tried.
There is gold in him, which pays for putting into the crucible;
he bears such rich fruit, that he is worth pruning;
he is a diamond of so pure, that he will repay the lapidary's toil."

"It was good for me to be afflicted so