SUFFERING

^[p. 208] SUFFERING

It is not so much what we suffer from, as how we suffer - the extent and amount of our sufferings - which declares the purpose of God in them. In every suffering, be it imaginary or otherwise, God purposes that a corresponding virtue of His grace should be displayed in me.

The suffering is to bring out a peculiar virtue from His own grace which no other suffering could bring out. Certain preparations (caustic often) bring out certain desired colours. It is through the tears of the firmament that the colours of the bow are obtained. But I mean more than this; the character of suffering indicates the nature of the contrast, or correlative which it is appointed to elicit. If the pressure be great and peculiar, some special characteristic of His grace within is thereby to be evoked. You thresh corn for the grain; you grind the grain to make flour. The produce is useful according to the severity and peculiarity of the process by which it is made available for use. We dry grapes for raisins - we bruise them for wine - who does not value the wine more than the raisins? And yet the same grapes which only made raisins, might have made wine if they had been subjected to a severer pressure. We can tell by the very sufferings we pass through the order of the virtues in the grace conferred on us; for we have nothing which we have not received. But we need especial pressure and discipline to set aside the flesh in us, which would hide the beauty of the grace given to us. Therefore “count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations”. (James 1: 2) The light affliction worketh a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.