荒漠甘泉09/28 @ 士林長青團契

「在我裡面有平安。」（約翰福音十六章 33 節）

幸福和祝福是兩件不同的東西。保羅雖受盡監禁、痛苦、損失、患難，但在這一切中間，他卻得到了祝福。

　　帕格尼尼（Paganini）是一位擅長演奏小提琴的大音樂家。一天，他出來站在聽眾面前，在喝采聲之下，忽然發現他手中的小提琴有點不對。再仔細一看，發覺了他所提的，並不是他平日珍愛的那架貴重的提琴。

　　他發了一回呆，然後不得不告訴他的聽眾他拿錯了他的琴。他退了下去，在幕後尋思他的琴到底留在什麼地方，不久就發覺有人把他的琴偷了去，換了一架破舊的留在原處。

　　他懊喪了一會，仍舊出來站在聽眾面前說：「諸位男女來賓，今天我要證明給諸位看：音樂並不是在樂器裡，乃是在人心裡。」他就用心來演奏；從那破舊的樂器裡流出了幽揚悅耳的音樂來；聽眾個個得到奮激，喝采聲幾乎轟穿了屋頂，他果然向他們證實了音樂並不是在樂器裡，乃是在他心裡。

　　受試煉的信徒啊，你今天的使命就是出來站在這世界的舞台上，向天上地下一切所有的證實說：人生的音樂並不是在環境裡，並不是在事物裡，並不是在外表裡。乃是在你心裡。

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“In me … peace.” (John 16:33.)

There is a vast difference between happiness and blessedness. Paul had imprisonments and pains, sacrifice and suffering up to the very limit; but in the midst of it all, he was blessed. All the beatitudes came into his heart and life in the midst of those very conditions.

Paganini, the great violinist, came out before his audience one day and made the discovery just as they ended their applause that there was something wrong with his violin. He looked at it a second and then saw that it was not his famous and valuable one.

He felt paralyzed for a moment, then turned to his audience and told them there had been some mistake and he did not have his own violin. He stepped back behind the curtain thinking that it was still where he had left it, but discovered that some one had stolen his and left that old second-hand one in its place. He remained back of the curtain a moment, then came out before his audience and said.

“Ladies and Gentlemen: I will show you that the music is not in the instrument, but in the soul.” And he played as he had never played before; and out of that second-hand instrument, the music poured forth until the audience was enraptured with enthusiasm and the applause almost lifted the ceiling of the building, because the man had revealed to them that music was not in the machine but in his own soul.

It is your mission, tested and tried one, to walk out on the stage of this world and reaveal to all earth and Heaven that the music is not in conditions, not in the things, not in externals, but the music of life is in your own soul.

If peace be in the heart,
The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty,
The midnight flash but shows the path of duty,
Each living creature tells some new and joyous story,
The very trees and stones all catch a ray of glory,
If peace be in the heart.

--- Charles Francis Richardson.