When Cyrus gave one of his friends a kiss, and another a wedge of gold, he that had the gold envied him that had the kiss, as a greater expression of favor. So the true Christian prefers the privilege of acceptance [fellowship] with God to the possession of any earthly comfort, for the light of His countenance is life, and His favor is as the cloud of the latter rain.-Buck

The righteous doth bear calamities with patience, but also with joy. For they do not look upon the labor, but upon the reward; not upon the pain, but upon the crown; not upon the bitterness of the medicine, but upon the health which it bringeth; not upon the grief of the chastisement, but on the love of the Chastiser.-F. Lewis, 1590.

There is as much difference between the sufferings of the saints and those of the ungodly, as there is between the cords with which the executioner opinions a condemned malefactor and the bandages wherewith a tender surgeon binds his patient. The effect of the one is to kill, of the other to cure. Believers undergo many crosses but no curses.-Salter.