「你的杖，你的竿，都安慰我。」－詩篇23:4
在我父親鄉下的房子裡，煙囪旁的角落有個小小的櫃子，裡頭擺滿了家族歷代傳承各式各樣的手杖。每次我和父親出門前，總會從櫃中挑出我們當時最需要的手杖。挑選時，我常想到，其實神的話語就是我們的杖。
戰爭時，絕望和逼近的危險紛紛而至，這時我們需要一根杖在黑暗中扶著我們前行：「他必不怕兇惡的信息；他心堅定，信靠耶和華。」（詩篇 112:7）
在死亡奪走了我們的孩子，令我們心碎無比時，我在神的應許中找到另一根杖：「一宿雖然有哭泣，早晨便必歡呼。」（詩篇 30:5）
在一次養病期間，我一年之久在外療養，不知道是否能重回我原有的生活時，我又抓住神牢靠的杖：「我知道我向你們所懷的意念，是賜平安的意念，不是降災禍的意念，要叫你們末後有好結局，有指望。」（耶利米書 29:11）
當人的判斷失去效能，疑惑恐懼伴隨而來時，我發現一支能領我安度的杖：「你們得力在於平靜信靠。」（以賽亞書 30:15）
在危急存亡，沒有時間有任何反應時，我有一根不誤事的杖：「信靠的人必不著急。」（以賽亞書 28:16）－亞伯特馬丁路德的妻子曾說：「我若沒有歷經苦難，便不能明白神的話是如何產生效力，聖靈是如何在我心運行，也永遠無法明白遵行基督徒生活準則的意義。」
神的杖就像孩童的識字版一樣，顯示出孩子需要認識的字；照樣，我們也需要藉著祂的杖，明白祂在我們身上的旨意。－選
"Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Ps. 23:4).At my father's house in the country there is a little closet in the chimney corner where are kept the canes and walking-sticks of several generations of our family. In my visits to the old house, when my father and I are going out for a walk, we often go to the cane closet, and pick out our sticks to suit the fancy of the occasion. In this I have frequently been reminded that the Word of God is a staff.
During the war, when the season of discouragement and impending danger was upon us, the verse, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," was a staff to walk with many dark days.
When death took away our child and left us almost heartbroken, I found another staff in the promise that "weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning."
When in impaired health, I was exiled for a year, not knowing whether I should be permitted to return to my home and work again, I took with me this staff which never failed, "He knoweth the thoughts that he thinketh toward me, thoughts of peace and not of evil."
In times of special danger or doubt, when human judgment has seemed to be set at naught, I have found it easy to go forward with this staff, "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." And in emergencies, when there has seemed to be no adequate time for deliberation or for action, I have never found that this staff has failed me, "He that believeth shall not make haste." --Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, in The Outlook
"I had never known," said Martin Luther's wife, "what such and such things meant, in such and such psalms, such complaints and workings of spirit; I had never understood the practice of Christian duties, had not God brought me under some affliction." It is very true that God's rod is as the schoolmaster's pointer to the child, pointing out the letter, that he may the better take notice of it; thus He pointeth out to us many good lessons which we should never otherwise have learned. --Selected
