「我受苦是與我有益。」－詩119:71
我所親眼見過最絢麗的「有機彩繪」，生長於一萬呎高山上的聖伯納收容所旁。在一大片的巨岩上，爬滿了鮮黃色的苔蘚；在日光的青睞下，就像迷人古堡上的金色城垛一樣光彩奪目。
在這樣荒禿的山頂上，苔蘚忍受了惱人的孤寂，接受了風暴激烈的洗禮，最後所展現出榮美色彩的模樣，卻遠遠勝過谷中安逸的苔蘚。
剛巧，我手上也有這兩種苔蘚的標本，一個正是來自那座萬呎高山，另一個則來自蘇格蘭堡附近的桑樹叢間；兩者外形和顏色的差異真是大相逕庭。
山頂上的苔蘚，呈現出一種柔和可愛的淡黃色，搓揉時滑順無比，外貌更是完整完美；但低谷裡的苔蘚的色澤，卻呈現出黯淡的鐵鏽色，撫摸時粗糙堅硬，輪廓各個殘缺不全。
這不就也是在困苦的風暴中，得不著安慰之信徒們的寫照嗎？
原本他們的性格上盡是污點，但經過神的風暴一再地擊打磨練，終於性格的輪廓逐漸完整，除去了黯淡與晦暗，只剩下光明和祝福。
－麥米倫
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted" (Ps. 119:71).It is a remarkable circumstance that the most brilliant colors of plants are to be seen on the highest mountains, in spots that are most exposed to the wildest weather. The brightest lichens and mosses, the loveliest gems of wild flowers, abound far up on the bleak, storm-scalped peak.
One of the richest displays of organic coloring I ever beheld was near the summit of Mount Chenebettaz, a hill about 10,000 feet high, immediately above the great St. Bernard Hospice. The whole face of an extensive rock was covered with a most vivid yellow lichen which shone in the sunshine like the golden battlement of an enchanted castle.
There, in that lofty region, amid the most frowning desolation, exposed to the fiercest tempest of the sky, this lichen exhibited a glory of color such as it never showed in the sheltered valley. I have two specimens of the same lichen before me while I write these lines, one from the great St. Bernard, and the other from the wall of a Scottish castle, deeply embossed among sycamore trees; and the difference in point of form and coloring between them is most striking.
The specimen nurtured amid the wild storms of the mountain peak is of a lovely primrose hue, and is smooth in texture and complete in outline, while the specimen nurtured amid the soft airs and the delicate showers of the lowland valley is of a dim rusty hue, and is scurfy in texture, and broken in outline.
And is it not so with the Christian who is afflicted, tempest-tossed, and not comforted? Till the storms and vicissitudes of God's providence beat upon him again and again, his character appears marred and clouded; but trials clear away the obscurity, perfect the outlines of his disposition, and give brightness and blessing to his life. --Hugh Macmillan
