The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-07-13
Through Suffering.

Through Suffering.
Much of the discipline of life is a dis
cipline of sorrow. 1t is the duty and it
is the high privilege of the Christian to
accept from Gods hand this discipline
of sorrow, and turn it into a discipline
of goodness and an experience'of joy.
There can be no question that the apOs-
ties of our Lord, and the great body of
his disciples during the early ages of the
Church, did SO accept it, and so use 1t.
We are repeatedly told that they gloried
in tribulations. and were often filled with
peace and joy while passing through the
fiery trials of human sorrow. With them
weeping might endure for night, but
then Joy was sure to come in the morn
ing. For their Divine Master had said,
and they believed him: "In the world
We shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world"
Their patience in suffering, their calm
confidence under adversely, their triumph
over the ordinary and the extraordinary
sorrow and bereavements of life, became
so marked that the pagans around them
were filled with establishment and admit
ration. They had attained Secret of
happiness which none of the princes or
the philosophers of that old classical
world had ever found.
But the saints of the Old Testament
had found it even as early as the days
of Job, who under the sorest bereave-
ments of life, could yet say: Though
He slay me will trust in Him." .'The
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken
away, blessed be the name of the Lord"
The inspired Psalmist, writing from his
own experience of life, sets before us the
disciplinary benefits of sanctitied sorrow
as clearly as if it had been written in
the pages of the New Testament.
Though exalted to a throne he had often
drunk the cup of affection, had watered
his couch with tears, and could say:
"My tears have been my meat day and
night; put Thou my tears into Thy
bottle" Yet he tells us as the result
and the recompense of his deepest sor-
row: 1T is good for me that | have
been afflicted, that l might learn Thy
statutes. Before l was afflicted went
astray, but now have l kept Thy work. "
-Ps. crix. 67-7I.
In the first place, it is by the disci-
pline of sorrow that we are brought
nearer to God. When all human helpers
fail. when brothers and sisters, Kind
friends and skillful physicians have done
their best for us, and all in vain, then
it is, if ever, that we feel that God
is present help in time of trouble.
Though the earth be removed and
though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the seas, the Lord of Hosts
is with us, the God of Jacob is our ref
uge." Never in this world does God
Seem to come nearer to us than when
He causes us to pass under the rod of
His affective providence. And never
do we so much feel the need of His help
ing hand as then. 1t is when humbled
in the dust by reason of affiiction and
sorrow that we feel and acknowledge
our complete dependence upon God.
Now there is not a man on earth, how
ever exalted in station or blessed with
friends and fortune, who does not need
to feel this dependence on his God, to
learn this lesson of humility. Sad is it
for the poor man, and equally sad for
experience and learned this useful les
son. If it is good to draw near to God,
as says the Psalmist, then it is good to
drink the cup of tears.
Then, again, it is in times of deepest
sorrow that we learn to pray as we
never prayed before. 1t was not until
he had passed through the bitter ex-
perience of want and sorrow, that the
prodigal returned to his fathers house
with cry for help and forgiveness.
And it is sorrow more than any other
experience that drives us back to God
from our wanderings, and prompts us
to pray with an importunate earnest
ness never felt before. We all need
that discipline of affiiction which shuts
us up to sense of our dependence on
God, before we can pray as we ought to
pray. David said, in the 10th Psalm:
!" was brought low and He helped me.
The sorrow of death compassed me and
the pains of hell got hold upon me;
found sorrow and trouble. Then called
upon the name of the Lord" When
we have been thus brought low by sor-
row, and cry to God with earnest, i'm
Fortunate prayer, we not only Get help
from trouble rs David did, but also
realize that most delightful encourage
ment which springs from an assurance
that God has heard and answered our
prayers. There is not a more blessed
experience in life than to feel, to know,
to remember, that God has heard us in
sorrow and helped us.
Still further. the discipline of sorrow
is good for us all, because it is precisely
in such school that the Christian
graces of faith. hope, patience, charity,
sympathy for others and love to God,
shine the brightest. Nowhere else, and
in no other way, can the most symmet-
rical and beautiful Christian character
be perfectly developed If the human
ity of our adorable Lord was not per-
fected without the necessity of tears,
how much more does our poor sinful ma
ture need the discipline of sorrow?-
Chicago Interior.