The Culture that Gives Strength
H. W. Beecher. Proverbs 24:10 If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. If you were to hear some men's experience, you would think that they grow as the white pine grows, with straight grain, and easily split; for I notice that all that grow easy, split easy. But there are some that grow as the mahogany grows, with veneering knots, and all quirls and contortions of grain. That is the best timber of the forest which has the most knots. Everybody seeks it, because, being hard to grow, it is hard to wear out. And when knots have been sawn and polished, how beautiful they are. There are many who are content to grow straight, like weeds on a dunghill; but there are many others who want to be stalwart and strong like the monarchs of the forest, and yet, when God sends winds of adversity to sing a lullaby in their branches, they do not like to grow in that way. They dread the culture that is really giving toughness to their soul and. strength to its fibre. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. WEB: If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.