Trouble, affliction, and sorrow come to all,-to the world and to the children of God. Persecution for righteousness' sake is wholly unknown by the world:it is the peculiar portion of those who believe in Christ, and who live godly in Him. There is another form of suffering which the Word calls chastening, and which is also the portion of those who believe in the Lord Jesus. From whatever source the believer's trials and sufferings may come, he has this blessed assurance that "All things work together for good to them that love God." God often calls His chosen ones to endure losses and want in ways which are exceedingly humiliating. We are proud; we want to get on in the world; to prosper and have success like the world; and yet how often in mercy and love and grace does the Lord cause our labors to come to naught, and permit the failure of our cherished hopes and plans. Sometimes we find ourselves hedged in, shut up, kept from success by barriers which only God can remove.
"Behold, we count them happy which endure." "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons." "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." How happy are they who endure humbly, patiently, submissively, what the Lord is pleased to send. We cannot, in our own strength; we can only put our hearts into the hands of Him to whom we belong. Our hearts may grow faint and weary, but He will be with us. '' The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." " Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
It should not so much concern us to get rid of trial as to profit by it. Are we pleasing our God in it? Do we know that we are casting ourselves wholly on Him ? – or are we in a maze of doubt and fear and anxiety to get into a more comfortable place, and seeking to satisfy our hearts with creature comforts apart from Him ? Trial we may be sure is from God.
We may be sure, too, that affliction and loss can be made for us, by His power and grace, far better than any amount of earthly prosperity and worldly peace. "He knoweth them that trust in Him." Are you doing that ? J. W. NEWTON.