Trial is the fruitful soil of trust. Difficulties are the divine incentives which demand and develop our confidence in the divine faithfulness and love. The eagle can only teach her young by tearing up her nest and hurling them out in mid-air, where, thrown upon their own resources, they must either fly or fall. As they strike out upon the air in desperate struggles, they find the secret of a new life and gradually learn to beat their way through the pathless firmament. So God teaches His children to use the wings of faith by stirring up their nests, taking away their props and often flinging them out into an abyss of helplessness, where they must either sink or learn to trust. They throw themselves upon the seeming void to find that God is there beneath them like the supporting wing which the eagle stretches forth beneath her faint and faltering brood. It is so easy for us to lean upon the things that we can see and feel that it is an entirely new experience for us to stand alone and walk with the unseen God. . . . But it is a lesson we must learn if we are ever to dwell in the eternal realm, where faith shall be our only sense and God shall be our All in all.
