Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER VI.

BENEFITS OF AFFLICTION

It may not be amiss to introduce here a few of the benefits, which afflictions in general are intended and calculated to produce. God does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. He takes no delight in seeing our tears, or hearing our groans; but he does take delight in doing us good, making us holy, conforming us to his own image, and fitting us to dwell in his own presence. He treats us as the sculptor does the marble under his hand, which from a rough unsightly mass he intends to splendid statue, a glorious work of art. cation of the chisel, every blow of the strike off some bit of the stone, which must be removed to bring out the figure in perfection, which he designs to form. In our case how much is necessary to be struck off froin our corrupt nature, and from what appertains to us, before we can be brought into hat form and beauty which it is the intention of the divine artificer we should bear, especially as it is his plan to mould us into his own image. How much of pride and vanity; of carnality and worldly-minded

४*

carve into a Every applimallet, is to

ness; of self-sufficiency and independence; of creature love and earthly dependence; must be displaced by one blow of the mallet, and one application of the chisel after another, before the beauties of holiness, humility, meekness, and heavenly mindedness; and all the graceful proportions and features of the divine nature can be exhibited.

Various authors have represented the benefits derived from affliction. How does it quicken devotion. Our prayers are too often only said in prosperity, now they are prayed; then they do but drop, now they are poured out, and flow like a stream, or rise like a cloud of incense, in almost uninterrupted exercise, till the thoughts and feelings seem to follow without intermission in one continued prayer. Ah! how many can look back to the place of affliction, and say, "There it was my soul poured out many prayers to the Lord. I had grown negligent of the duty, and careless in its performance; but then I prayed indeed: then I had communion with God; then I sought the Lord, and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears." Nearness to God is the happiness of the renewed soul. Affliction is but one of God's servants to bring us into his presence, and the enjoyment of this privilege. God delights to hear from us often, as the kind parent loves to hear from his child when at a distance from home. Affliction comes and knocks at the door, enters into our habitation, asks us if we have not forgotten our father, and expresses a willingness to conduct us to him. Many have found,

in trial, the lost spirit of prayer, and have experienced in that one benefit, more than a compensation for all they have suffered. Many a woman has been recalled, as a widow, to the closet of devotion, which as a wife, she had forsaken.

Affliction discloses, mortifies, and prevents sin. It is a season of remembrance. The sin of Joseph's brethren was forgotten till they were in prison; then it came to their recollection, and they exclaimed, "We are verily guilty concerning our brother." The poor widow of Zarephath, when her child lay dead in the house, thus addressed the prophet, "What uave I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son ?"-1 Kings xvii. 18. Perhaps at

at moment, the guilt of all her past life, for which she had not sufficiently humbled herself before God, came before her perturbed mind. Sin appears but small, and presses but lightly on the conscience in the days of prosperity, but its awful form seems terrific in the night season of trial. Our sorrows look then as the shadows of sins, and address us as with a kind of spectral voice. We go back through our lives; we follow ourselves through every scene; we look at our conduct with an inquisitive and jealous eye; we examine our motives, and weigh our spirits; and oh what humbling disclosures are the result! Many have gained more self-knowledge by a month's learning in the school of sorrow, than by all their previous life. As t discloses sin, so it mortifies it

As wise and salutary discipline weakens evil habits and strengthens the moral virtues; as the frosts of winter kill, in fallow ground, the poxious insects, and the rank and poisonous weeds; as the knife prunes the tree of its dead and superfluous branches; and as the fire purifies the precious metals, so that they lose nothing by its action, but their dross; so trials purge the soul of its corruptions, by weakening the love of sin, giving an experimental proof of its malignity, awakening strenuous efforts to resist its influence, and teaching the necessity of renewed acts of faith on the atoning blood of the Saviour, and dependence on the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. "Every branch in me that beareth fruit, he pruneth it that it may bear more fruit."---John xv. 2. By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin."

[ocr errors]

When Mr. Cecil was walking in the Botanical Gardens of Oxford, his attention was arrested by a fine pomegranate tree, cut almost through the stem near the root. On asking the gardener the reason of this, "Sir," said he, “this tree used to shoot so strong, that it bore nothing but leaves. I was therefore obliged to cut it in this manner; and when it was almost cut through, then it began to bear plenty of fruit." The reply afforded this inquisitive student a general practical lesson, which was of considerable use to him in after life, when severely exercised by personal and domestic afflictions. Alas! In many cases, it is not enough that the useless branches of

the tree be lopped off, but the stock itself must be cut-and cut nearly through,-before it can become extensively fruitful. And sometimes the finer the tree, and the more luxuriant its growth, the deeper must be the incision."*

Nor is affliction without its benefit in preventing sin. We never know how near we are to danger. We are like blind men wandering near the edge of a precipice, the mouth of a well, or the margin of a deep pit; and then God by a severe wrench, it may be, and a violent jerk that puts us to some pain, and gives us a severe shock, plucks us from the ruin that we saw hot. Oh what hair-breath escapes from destruction, effected perhaps by some distressing visitation, shall we in eternity be made to understand, we experienced on earth. We now often stand amazed at some sore trial; we cannot conjecture why it was sent; we see no purpose it was to serve, no end it was to accomplish, but there was an omniscient eye that saw what we did not, and could not see, and he sent forth this event to pluck our feet from the net which had been spread for them. How we shall adore God in heaven for these preventing mercies, that came in the form of some dark and

explicable event, which filled us at the time with lamentation and woe! Oh woman, even thy hus

"Sympathy," p. 154, by the Rev. JOHN BRUCE, Minister of the Necropolis, Liverpool. This is a tender and inestimable volume for the afflicted in general, and especially for those who have suffered the loss of friends.

« PreviousContinue »