Why are you cast down, O my soul?

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

(Philpot, "A Believer’s Dialogue With His Soul")

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why so
disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for
I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."
Psalm 42:11

Do you forget, O soul, that the way to heaven
is a very strait and narrow path; too narrow for
you to carry your sins in it with you?

God sees it good that you should be cast down.

You were getting very proud, O soul.

The world had gotten hold of your heart.

You were seeking great things for yourself.

You were secretly roving away from the Lord.

You were too much lifted up in SELF.

The Lord has sent you these trials and difficulties
and allowed these temptations to fall upon you,
to bring you down from your state of false security.

There is reason therefore, even to praise God
for being cast down, and for being so disturbed.

How this opens up parts of God's Word which
you never read before with any feeling.

How it gives you sympathy and communion
with the tried and troubled children of God.

How it weans and separates you from dead professors.

How it brings you in heart and affection,
out of the world that lies in wickedness.

And how it engages your thoughts, time after time,
upon the solemn matters of eternity; instead of being
a prey to every idle thought and imagination; and
tossed up and down upon a sea of vanity and folly.

But, above all, when there is a sweet response from
the Lord, and the power of divine things is inwardly
felt, in enabling us to hope in God, and to praise His
blessed name; then we see the benefit of being cast
down and so repeatedly and continually disturbed.

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why so
disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for
I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."
Psalm 42:11

"You, O God, have purified us like silver
melted in a crucible." Psalm 66:10

As the olives must be crushed for the oil to flow;
as the grapes must be bruised in the wine-press
that the vats may be filled; as the gold comes out
refined from the furnace--so, through the agonies
of great trial, the best Christian graces are
developed.

"I have refined you in the furnace of suffering."
Isaiah 48:10

These difficulties . . .

(by Joseph Philpot)

"From all your idols will I cleanse you." Ezekiel 36:25

When there are no crosses, temptations, or trials,
a man is sure to go out after and cleave to idols.

It matters not what experience he has had. If once he
ceases to be plagued and tried, he will be setting up
his household gods in the secret chambers of his heart.

Profit or pleasure, self indulgence or self gratification,
will surely, in one form or another, engross his thoughts,
and steal away his heart.

Nor is there anything too trifling or insignificant to
become an idol. Whatever is meditated on preferably
to God, whatever is desired more than He, whatever
more interests us, pleases us, occupies our waking
hours, or is more constantly in our mind, becomes
an idol, and a source of sin.

It is not the magnitude of the idol, but its existence
as an object of worship, that constitutes idolatry. I have
seen some 'Burmese idols' not much larger than my hand;
and I have seen some 'Egyptian idols' weighing many tons.
But both were equally idols, and the comparative size had
nothing to do with the question.

So spiritually, an idol is not to be measured by its size;
its relative importance or non importance. A flower may
be as much an idol to one man, as a chest full of gold to
another.

If you watch your heart, you will see idols rising and setting
all day long, nearly as thickly as the stars by night.

But God sends . . .
trials,
difficulties,
temptations,
besetments,
losses,
afflictions,
to pull down these idols, or rather
to pull away our hearts from them.

These difficulties . . .
pull us out of fleshly ease,
make us cry for mercy,
pull down all rotten props,
hunt us out of false refuges, and
strip us of vain hopes and delusive expectations.

The very trials and afflictions, and the sore
temptations through which God's family pass,
all eventually endear Christ to them.

And depend upon it, if you are a child of God,
you will sooner or later, in your travels through
this wilderness, find your need of Jesus as "able
to save to the uttermost."

There will be such things in your heart, and such
feelings in your mind, the temptations you will
meet with will be such, that nothing short of a
Savior that is able to save to the uttermost
can save you out of your desperate case and
felt circumstances as utterly lost and helpless.

This a great point to come to. All trials, all
temptations, all strippings, all emptyings
that do not end here are valueless, because
they lead the soul away from God.

But the convictions, the trials, the temptations,
the strippings, the emptyings, that bring us to
this spot: that we have nothing, and can do
nothing, but the Lord alone must do it all; these
have a blessed effect, because they eventually
make Jesus very near and dear unto us.

Philpot

Wonderful, wonderful... I thank God for these encouragements...

As the olives must be crushed for the oil to flow;
as the grapes must be bruised in the wine-press
that the vats may be filled; as the gold comes out
refined from the furnace--so, through the agonies
of great trial, the best Christian graces are
developed.

And depend upon it, if you are a child of God,
you will sooner or later, in your travels through
this wilderness, find your need of Jesus as "able
to save to the uttermost."

There will be such things in your heart, and such
feelings in your mind, the temptations you will
meet with will be such, that nothing short of a
Savior that is able to save to the uttermost
can save you out of your desperate case and
felt circumstances as utterly lost and helpless.

(Archibald Alexander, "Growth in Grace" 1844)

One of the best evidences of growth in grace, is a
clearer and deeper insight into the evils of your own
heart. But your first conclusion is apt to be--"I am
growing worse every day! I see innumerable
evils springing up within me which I never saw
before!"

This person may be compared to one shut up in
a dark room where he is surrounded by many
loathsome objects. If a single ray of light is let
into the room, he sees the more prominent objects.
And if the light gradually increases, he sees more
and more of the filth by which he has been
surrounded. It was there before--but he
did not perceive it. His increased knowledge
of the fact is a sure evidence of increasing light.

[i]All your former troubles and afflictions by Thomas Brooks,[/i]

"In the day of adversity, consider." Eccles. 7:14

If you would be quiet and silent under your present
troubles and trials, then dwell much upon the benefit,
the profit, the advantage that has redounded to your
souls by all your former troubles and afflictions.

Oh! consider, how by former afflictions the Lord has
revealed sin, prevented sin, and mortified sin!

Consider how the Lord by former afflictions has
revealed to you the impotency, the mutability,
the insufficiency, and the vanity of the world,
and all worldly concerns!

Consider how the Lord by former afflictions has melted
your heart, and broken your heart, and humbled your
heart, and prepared your heart for clearer, fuller, and
sweeter enjoyments of Himself!

Consider what pity, what compassion, what affections,
what tenderness, and what sweetness former afflictions
have wrought in you, towards others in misery!

Consider what room former afflictions have made
in your soul for God, for His word, for good counsel,
and for divine comfort!

Consider how by former afflictions the Lord has made
you more partaker of His Christ, His Spirit, His holiness,
His goodness, etc.

Consider how by former afflictions the Lord has made
you to look towards heaven more, to mind heaven more,
to prize heaven more, and to long for heaven more, etc.

Now, who can seriously consider all the good that he
has gotten by former afflictions—and not be silent under
present afflictions? Who can remember those choice, those
great, and those precious profits that his soul has made
of former afflictions, and not reason himself into a holy
silence under present afflictions thusly, "O my soul! has not
God done you much good, great good, special good—by
former afflictions? Yes! O my soul! has not God done that
for you by former afflictions—which you would not undo for
ten thousand worlds? Yes! And is not God, O my soul! as
powerful as ever, as faithful as ever, as gracious as ever,
and as ready and willing as ever—to do you good by present
afflictions, as he has been to do you good by former afflictions?
Yes! Yes! Why, why then do you not sit silent and mute before
Him, under your present troubles, O my soul?"

(Thomas Brooks, "The Privy Key of Heaven" 1665)

How shall we find out that particular sin, for which God
corrects us--for which He has brought the rod upon us?

Seriously observe what that sin is, which your soul would
have spared above all, which your soul is most unwilling
to leave, and bid an everlasting farewell to. Observe what
your right-hand sin, your bosom sin, your constitutional
sin, your complexion sin, is; for it is a hundred to one that
God has sent the rod for the subduing of that very sin!
Commonly by the rod, God points at the mortifying of that
particular sin to which the heart stands most strongly inclined.

It may be that sin which you cannot endure should be touched,
or reproved, or spoken against. Ah! how proud, how impatient,
how passionate, how mad are many--when you come to touch
their right-eye sin! When you come to touch them in the
tender part, oh! then they fume, and swell, and rage,
and carry on like people out of their wits; as you may see in
the scribes and pharisees, who were so angry and mad with
Christ that they sought His death; and all because He was
still a-pointing at the toads in their bosoms; namely,
pride, vainglory, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness. Oh! they
could not endure that the sharp razor of reproof should come
near their sorest part!

Certainly that Christian must be under a very bad distemper,
who smites a righteous man with reproach--for smiting him
with a reproof. Though gracious reproofs are a choice
remedy, yet few stomachs can bear them. Who is angry
with the physician for prescribing a bitter medicine? And
yet, ah! how angry are many Christians when they fall under
holy reproofs. Now, doubtless, the voice of the rod is this,
"Soul! take heed of that sin which you cannot endure
should be touched. Labor mightily with God to get that
particular sin mortified--which you cannot endure should
be reproved." It is very probable that, for the subduing
of that particular sin, the Lord has visited you with His
fatherly rod.

(James W. Alexander, "Consolation" 1852)

"Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord"
(Psalm 94:12)

We are all familiar with suffering. We are either now
enduring, or shall at some future time endure severe
afflictions. There are few of us therefore to whom the
inquiry may not be interesting--how is affliction a
blessing? The question may be thus answered.

The chastisements which God inflicts upon His children
are profitable to them--as they tend under the Divine
blessing to promote piety in the heart. Chastisement
forms a necessary part of that paternal discipline, by
which our heavenly Father fits His children for their
eternal rest in glory.

1. Chastisement is useful, because it tends to convince
the believer of his misery, and shows him that without
Christ he cannot be happy. One great end of your
affliction is answered, when you are led to commence
and persevere in a faithful and earnest application to
Christ, as the great Physician.

2. Chastisement is useful, as it leads the believer to
see and feel his exceeding sinfulness.

3. Chastisement is useful, as a trial of faith. Adversity
is compared to the fire, the furnace, the refining-pot
or crucible, because it not only purifies--but tries; it
not only consumes the dross--but ascertains the gold.

4. Chastisement is useful, as it strengthens faith, by
leading the believer to the promises--and especially
to the Lord Jesus Christ.

5. Chastisement is useful, because it leads the believer
to exercise entire submission to the Divine will.

6. Chastisement is useful, because it leads the believer
to look for complete happiness in heaven alone. Let the
worst, most lingering, and most aggravated instance of
suffering be presented--and the hope of heaven is still
sufficient to mitigate its ills! It is well to learn to look
beyond all secondary, earthly, imperfect comforts--to
God, the source of good, and to that world where all
tears are wiped away!

In pain, and despondency, and grief, we go to Jesus
as to a friend who sticks closer than a brother. We
pour our sorrows into His friendly ear, and ask His
aid, and then, when He reveals to us His love, and
speaks His promises, and unveils His face, even though
He gives no assurance that we shall be set free, He does
more--He gives us Himself, and faith is refreshed and
nourished by receiving Him. And shall we not regard
as a mercy--that illness, or that bereavement, or that
severe trial--which so embitters the world's cup, as to
lead us to Christ, that we may see His beauty, and be
filled with His love?

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted!" Ps. 119:71

(John MacDuff, "Gleams from the Sick Chamber" 1882)

"But what could I say? For He Himself had sent this
sickness. Now I will walk humbly throughout my years
because of this anguish I have felt." Isaiah 38:15

God Himself has mixed your bitter cup, and led
you to your 'Gethsemane of suffering'.

All your sufferings . . .
the existence of them,
the duration of them,
the intensity of them,
are appointed by your heavenly Father.

"Though now for a little while, if need be, you may
have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 1 Peter 1:6

Your heavenly Father can inflict no unnecessary pang.

You may presently be pain-stricken, and woe-worn.

There is a divine necessity for your present "fiery trial."
No drop in the cup can be spared! "I will correct you
in measure." Your heavenly Father, tenderer and more
loving than the tenderest earthly parent, tempers the
fury of the flames, saying, "Thus far shall you go, and
no farther."

Happy for you, that you can write "if need be" . . .
over that severest hour of distress,
over every night of throbbing temples,
over sleepless eyes,
over every fresh thorn sent to buffet,
over every heavy cross sent to carry.

When we are assured that nothing which is
appointed by our Father can come to us wrongly,
our cup of suffering becomes a cup of love!

"Shall I not drink the cup my Father has
given me?" John 18:11

"For our light and momentary troubles are
achieving for us an eternal glory that far
outweighs them all." 2 Corinthians 4:17

What verse is more soothing sight for a suffering
couch, or for a dying pillow? What verse is more
consolatory for a weary, burdened body? and above
all, for a weary, burdened, sin-stricken heart?

"God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Revelation 7:17

A tearless Heaven will make amends for all!

(J. C. Philpot, "The Afflicted Remnant" 1845)

"I have refined you but not in the way silver
is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the
furnace of suffering." Isaiah 48:10

What benefit is there in afflictions?

Does God send them without an object in view?

Do they come merely, as the men of the world think,
by chance? No! There is benefit intended by them.

The branch cannot bear fruit unless it be pruned.

The love of sin cannot be cast out; the soul cannot
be meekened, humbled, softened, and made contrite;
the world cannot be embittered; the things of time
and sense cannot be stripped of their false hue and
their magic appearance--except through affliction.

Our greatest blessings usually spring from our greatest
afflictions--they prepare the heart to receive them; they
empty the vessel of the poisonous ingredients which
have filled it, and fit it to receive gospel wine and milk.

To be without . . .
these afflictions,
these griefs,
these trials,
these temptations,
is to write ourselves destitute of grace.

But our coward flesh shrinks from them!

We are willing to walk to heaven; but not to walk
there in God's way. Though we see in the Scripture
that the path to glory is a rough and rugged way;
yet when our feet are planted in that painful and
trying path, we shrink back; our coward flesh refuses
to walk in that road.

God therefore, as a sovereign, brings those afflictions
upon us which He sees most fit for our profit and His
glory, without ever consulting us, without ever allowing
us a choice in the matter.

And He will generally cause our afflictions to come from
the most unexpected source, and in a way most cutting
to our feelings--in the way that of all others we would
least have chosen--and yet in a way which of all others,
is most for our profit.

God deals with us like a surgeon dealing with a
diseased organ. How painful the operation!

How deep the knife cuts!

How long it may be before the wound is healed!

Yet every stroke of the knife is indispensable!
A skillful and faithful surgeon would not do his
duty if he did not dissect it to the very bottom.

As pain before healing is necessary, and must be
produced by the knife; so spiritually, we must be
wounded and cut in our souls, as long, and as
deeply as God sees needful, that in His own
time we may receive the consolation.

Do the afflictions we pass through humble us?

Do they deaden the love of the world in our hearts?

Do they purge out hypocrisy?

Do they bring us more earnestly to the throne of grace?

Do they discover to us sins that we have not before seen?

Do they penetrate into our very hearts?

Do they lay bare the corrupt fountain that we carry within us?

Do they search and test us before a heart-searching God?

Do they meeken and soften our spirit?

"I have refined you but not in the way silver
is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the
furnace of suffering." Isaiah 48:10

thank you brother these are lifting to my soul..
Knowing my God work all things for those He loves, even the hardship and suffeirng and sickness. It is my prayer, and struggle to turst and know my sickness is good.

Blessing
charlene

(Henry Law, "Comfort for Mourners")

"Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes
so that it will be even more fruitful." John 15:2

God's knife is sharp, but it removes encumbering
branches. The process is not purposeless.

Lasting impressions come from heavy blows.

These rigid means are now astir . . .
to wean you from the world, whose ways are death;
to unmask the hollow treachery of 'creature charms';
to expose the utter vanity of earth's delights.

The lesson is now taught, that all is 'fleeting
emptiness' apart from God. He, and He only, is . . .
the unfailing portion;
a cup of overflowing joy;
a garden in which calm happiness is
ever blooming, ever fragrant, ever new.

"Practical Directions How to Grow in Grace and Make
Progress in Piety" Archibald Alexander (1772-1851)

For your more rapid growth in grace, some of you
will be cast into the furnace of affliction. Sickness,
bereavement, bad conduct of children and relatives,
loss of property or of reputation, may come upon you
unexpectedly and press heavily on you.

In these trying circumstances, exercise patience and
fortitude. Be more solicitous to have the affliction
sanctified, than removed.

Glorify God while in the fire of adversity. That faith
which is most tried is commonly most pure and precious.

Learn from Christ how you ought to suffer.

Let perfect submission to the will of God be aimed at.

Never indulge a murmuring or discontented spirit.

Repose with confidence on the promises.

Commit all your cares to God.

Make known your requests to Him by prayer.

Let go your too eager grasp of the world.

Become familiar with death and the grave.

Wait patiently.

by J.C. Ryle

Many of God's children get on very well
so long as they have no trials.
They follow Christ very tolerably in the time of fair weather.
They fancy they are trusting Him entirely.
They flatter themselves they have cast every care on Him.
They obtain the reputation of being very good Christians.

But suddenly some unlooked-for trial assails them--
Their property makes itself wings and flies away.
Their own health fails.
Death comes up into their house.
Tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word.

And where now is their faith?
Where is the strong confidence they thought they had?
Where is their peace, their hope, their resignation?

Alas, they are sought for and not found.
They are weighed in the balances and found lacking.
Fear and doubt and distress and anxiety break in upon
them like a flood, and they seem at their wits' end.
I know that this is a sad description.
I only put it to the conscience of every real Christian,
WHETHER IT IS NOT CORRECT AND TRUE.

The plain truth is that there is no literal and absolute perfection
among true Christians, so long as they are in the body.

The best and brightest of God's saints is but a poor mixed being.

Converted, renewed, and sanctified through he be,
HE IS STILL COMPASSED WITH INFIRMITY!

There is not a just man upon earth that always does good and
sins not. In many things we all offend.
A man may have true saving faith and yet not have it always
close at hand and ready to be used (Eccles. 7:20; James 3:2).

I beseech every reader of this to remember this.
It is a lesson worth attention.
The apostles believed in Christ, loved Christ,
and gave up all to follow Christ.
And yet you see in this storm the apostles were afraid.
Learn to be charitable in your judgement of them.

Learn to be moderate in your expectations from your own heart.

Contend to the death for the truth that no man is a true
Christian who is not converted and is not a holy man.

But allow that a man be converted, have a new heart, and be
a holy man, and yet be liable to infirmity, doubts, and fears.

The Benefits of Affliction
LETTER XXXIII by John Newton

My dear Madam,

I have often preached to others of the benefit of affliction; but my own path for many years has been so smooth, and my trials, though I have not been without trials, comparatively so light and few, that I have seemed to myself to speak by rote upon a subject of which I had not a proper feeling. Yet the many exercises of my poor afflicted people, and the sympathy the Lord has given me with them in their troubles, has made this a frequent and favourite topic of my ministry among them. The advantages of afflictions, when the Lord is pleased to employ them for the good of his people, are many and great. Permit me to mention a few of them; and the Lord grant that we may all find those blessed ends answered to ourselves, by the trials he is pleased to appoint us.

Afflictions quicken us to prayer. It is a pity it should be so; experience testifies that a long course of ease and prosperity, without painful changes, has an unhappy tendency to make us cold and formal in our secret worship; but troubles rouse our spirits, and constrain us to call upon the Lord in good earnest, when we feel a need of that help which we only can have from him.

They are useful, and in a degree necessary, to keep alive in us a conviction of the vanity and unsatisfying nature of the present world, and all its enjoyments; to remind us that this is not our rest, and to call our thoughts upwards, where our true treasure is, and where our conversation ought to be. When things go on much to our wish, our hearts are too prone to say, It is good to be here. It is probable, that had Moses, when he came to invite Israel to Canaan, found them in prosperity, as in the days of Joseph, they would have been very unwilling to remove; but the afflictions they were previously brought into made his message welcome. Thus the Lord, by pain, sickness, and disappointments, by breaking our cisterns and withering our gourds, weakens our attachment to this world, and makes the thought of quitting it more familiar and more desirable.

A child of God cannot but greatly desire a more enlarged and experimental acquaintance with his holy word; and this attainment is greatly promoted by our trials. The far greater part of the promises in Scripture are made and suited to a state of affliction; and, though we may believe they are true, we cannot so well know their sweetness, power, and suitableness, unless we ourselves are in a state to which they refer. The Lord says, " Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver."- Now till the day of trouble comes, such a promise is like a city of refuge to an Israelite, who not having slain a man, was in no danger of the avenger of blood. He had a privilege near him, of which he knew not the use and value, because he was not in the case for which it was provided. But some can say, " I not only believe this promise upon the authority of the speaker, but I can set my seal to it: I have been in trouble; I took this course for relief, and I was not disappointed. The Lord verily heard and delivered me." Thus afflictions likewise give occasion of our knowing and noticing more of the Lord's wisdom, power, and goodness, in supporting and relieving, than we should otherwise have known.

I have not time to take another sheet, and must therefore contract my homily. Afflictions evidence to ourselves, and manifest to others, the reality of grace. And when we suffer as Christians, exercise some measure of that patience and submission and receive some measure of these supports and supplies, which the Gospel requires and promises to believers, we are more confirmed that we have not taken up with mere notions; and others may be convinced that we do not follow cunningly devised fables. They likewise strengthen by exercise our graces: as our limbs and natural powers would be feeble if not called to daily exertion; so the graces of the Spirit would languish, without something provided to draw them out to use! And, to say no more, they are honourable, as they advance our conformity to Jesus our Lord, who was a man of sorrows for our sake. Methinks, if we might go to heaven without suffering, we should be unwilling to desire it. Why should we ever wish to go by any other path than that which he has consecrated and endeared by his own example? especially as his people's sufferings are not penal; there is no wrath in them; the cup he puts in their hands is very different from that which he drank for their sakes, and is only medicinal to promote their chief good. Here I must stop; but the subject is fruitful, and might be pursued through a quire of paper.

I am, &c.

John Newton

Sayings by John Mason

**Two things should comfort suffering Christians, namely,
all that they suffer is not hell;
yet it is all the hell they shall suffer.

**Afflictions are not so much threatened as promised, to the children of God.

**By affliction God separates the sin which He hates,
from the soul which He loves.

**Sin is the poison, affliction the medicine.

**If the servants of Christ are ever so low and afflicted,
yet His heart is with them, and His eye upon them.

**God takes it unkindly when we grieve too much for any outward thing; because it is a sign we fetch not that comfort from Him which we should.

**Though the hand of God may be against you;
yet the heart of God may be towards you.

**What is bearing a temporal cross, to the wearing an eternal crown?

**Our enjoyments are greater than our afflictions,
and our afflictions less than our sins.

**Our sufferings should stir up our graces as well as our griefs.

"As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." Revelation 3:19

Are outward afflictions the ground of dejection and trouble?
How do our hearts fail and our spirits sink, under the many
smarting rods of God upon us! But our relief and consolation
under them all is in Christ Jesus; for the rod that afflicts us
is in the hand of Christ who loves us! His design in affliction
is our profit. Hebrews 12:10. That design of His for our good
shall certainly be accomplished—and after that no more
afflictions forever! "God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes." Revel. 21:3. Thus two things are most evident:

1. Nothing can comfort the soul without Christ. He is the soul
that animates all comforts; they would be dead without him.
Temporal enjoyments, riches, honors, health, relations, yield
not a drop of true comfort without Christ. Spiritual enjoyments,
ministers, ordinances, promises, are fountains sealed and springs
shut up until Christ opens them; a man may go comfortless in
the midst of them all.

2. No troubles or afflictions can deject the soul which Christ
comforts. "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." 2 Corin. 6:10.
A believer may walk with a heart full of comfort amidst all the
troubles of the world. So that the conclusion stands firm—that
Christ, and Christ only, is the consolation of believers.

John Flavel

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=89]Joy Out of Travail by T.A.Sparks[/url]

"So God established this painful way, this suffering way as the only way as He could recover and establish the law of values, a preciousness, to save man from his superficiality in regard to the most costly things

Anything that comes from God will sooner or later, pass into the realm of suffering, into the realm of travail to find out how much value we put upon it, how much it really means to us, how much we have seen of God in it, it will become a matter of life or death."

Tears_of_joy wrote:
Oh! consider, how by former afflictions the Lord has
revealed sin, prevented sin, and mortified sin!

Consider how the Lord by former afflictions has melted
your heart, and broken your heart, and humbled your
heart, and prepared your heart for clearer, fuller, and
sweeter enjoyments of Himself!

Consider what room former afflictions have made
in your soul for God, for His word, for good counsel,
and for divine comfort!

Consider how by former afflictions the Lord has made
you more partaker of His Christ, His Spirit, His holiness,
His goodness, etc.

Consider how by former afflictions the Lord has made
you to look towards heaven more, to mind heaven more,
to prize heaven more, and to long for heaven more, etc.

Now, who can seriously consider all the good that he
has gotten by former afflictions—and not be silent under
present afflictions?

I don't know how I missed this yesterday. Excellent post, Kire.