The School Of Suffering
by John Newton
I suppose you are still in the 'school of the cross', learning the happy are
of extracting 'real good' out of 'seeming evil', and to grow tall by
stooping. The flesh is a sad untoward dunce in this school; but grace makes
the spirit willing to learn by suffering; yes, it cares not what it endures,
so that sin may be mortified, and a conformity to the image of Jesus be
increased. Surely, when we see the most and the best of the Lord's children
so often in heaviness, and when we consider how much He loves them, and what
He has done and prepared for them, we may take it for granted that there is
a need-be for their sufferings. For it would be easy to His power, and not a
thousandth part of what His love intends to do for them should He make their
whole life here, from the hour of their conversion to their death, a
continued course of satisfaction and comfort, without anything to distress
them from within or without. But were it so, would we not miss many
advantages?
In the first place, we would not then be very conformable to Jesus, nor be
able to say, "As He was, so are we in this world." Methinks a believer would
be ashamed to be so utterly unlike his Lord. What! The master always a man
of sorrow and acquainted with grief, and the servant always happy and full
of comfort! Jesus despised, reproached, neglected, opposed, and betrayed;
and His people admired and caressed! He living in the poverty, and they
filled with abundance; He sweating blood for anguish, and they strangers to
distress!
How unsuitable would these things be! How much better to be called to the
honor of experiencing a measure of His sufferings! A cup was put into His
hand on our account, and His love engaged Him to drink it for us. The wrath
which it contained He drank wholly Himself; but He left us a little
affliction to taste, that we might remember how He loved us, and how much
more He endured for us than He will ever call us to endure for Him.
Again, how could we, without sufferings, manifest the nature and truth of
the Christian graces! What place should we then have for patience,
submission, meekness, forbearance, and a readiness to forgive, if we had
nothing to try us, either from the hand of the Lord, or from the hand of
men! A Christian without trials would be like a mill without wind or water;
the contrivance and design of the wheel-work within would be unnoticed and
unknown, without something to put it in motion from without. Nor would our
graces grow, unless they were called out to exercise; the difficulties we
meet with not only prove, but strengthen, the graces of the spirit. If a
person were always to sit still, without making use of legs or arms, he
would probably wholly lose the power of moving his limbs at last. But by
walking and working he becomes strong and active. So, in a long course of
ease, the powers of the new man would certainly languish; the soul would
grow soft, indolent, cowardly, and faint; and therefore the Lord appoints
His children such dispensations as make them strive and struggle, and pant;
they must press through a crowd, swim against a stream, endure hardships,
run, wrestle, and fight; and thus their strength grows in the using.
By these things, likewise, they are made more willing to leave the present
world, to which we are prone to cleave too closely in our hearts when our
path is very smooth. Had Israel enjoyed their former peace and prosperity in
Egypt, when Moses came to invite them to Canaan, I think they would hardly
have listened to him. But the Lord allowed them to be brought into great
trouble and bondage, and then the news of deliverance was more welcome, yet
still they were but half willing, and they carried a love to the flesh-pots
of Egypt with them into the wilderness.
We are like them. Though we say this world is vain and sinful, we are too
fond of it; and though we hope for true happiness only in Heaven, we are
often well content to stay longer here on earth. But the Lord sends
afflictions one after another to quicken our desires, and to convince us
that this world cannot be our rest. Sometimes if you drive a bird from one
branch of a tree he will hop to another a little higher, and from thence to
a third; but if you continue to disturb him, he will at last take wing, and
fly quite away. Thus we, when forced from one creature-comfort, perch upon
another, and so on. But the Lord mercifully follows us with trials, and will
not let us rest upon any; by degrees our desires take a nobler flight, and
can be satisfied with nothing short of Himself; and we say, "To depart and
be with Jesus is best of all!"
I trust you find the name and grace of Jesus more and more precious to you;
His promises more sweet, and your hope in them more abiding; your sense of
your own weakness and unworthiness daily increasing; your persuasion of his
all-sufficiency, to guide, support, and comfort you, more confirmed. You owe
your growth in these respects in a great measure to His blessing upon those
afflictions which He has prepared for you, and sanctified to you. May you
praise Him for all that is past, and trust Him for all that is to come!