Iron till it be thoroughly heated is incapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on his anvil into what frame he pleases.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
He has sat on the fence so long that the iron has entered his soul.
Ironing is comfort. It's control. I'm a nutty person who likes to make sure everything is in its place.
War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.
What God hath wrought?
Guilt upon the conscience, like rust upon iron, both defiles and consumes it, gnawing and creeping into it, as that does which at last eats out the very heart and substance of the metal.
In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.
In the course of history, men come to see that iron necessity is neither iron nor necessary.
We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
God's way of answering the Christian's prayer for more patience, experience, hope and love often is to put him into the furnace of affliction.
The good Lord made us all out of iron. Then he turns up the heat to forge some of us into steel.