August 20

Glad acceptance of suffering

“If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities” (2 Cor. 11:30).
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).

Pain has come to me, but in it I have always found some secret pleasure and compensation. Sorrow and bereavement have thrown me back upon God and deepened and purified my joy in Him. Agony, physical and mental, have led to some unexpected triumph of grace and faith, some enlargement of sympathy and of power to understand and bless others. Loss and gain, loneliness and love, light and darkness, trials and things hard or impossible to understand—everything has brought its own blessing as my soul has bowed to and accepted the yoke of Jesus and refused to murmur or complain, but has received the daily providences of life as God’s training school for faith, for patience, for steadfastness and love.
—Samuel Logan Brengle.

Smite on! It doth not hurt me now;
The spear hath lost its edge of pain;
And piercing thorns, that bound my brow,
No longer leave their bleeding stain.

What once was woe is chang’d to bliss;
What once was loss is now my gain;
My sorrow is my happiness;
My life doth live by being slain.

The birth-pangs of those dreadful years
Are like the midnight chang’d to morn;
And daylight shines upon my tears,
Because the soul’s great life is born.

The piercing thorns have chang’d to flowers;
The spears have grown to scepters bright;
And sorrow’s dark and sunless hours
Become eternal days of light.
—Thomas C. Upham.

What we do from fear, and without love, is always wearisome, hard, grievous, oppressive. What we do out of love, from persuasion, with a free will, however hard to the senses, becomes pleasant. A desire to please God because we love Him makes us love to suffer, and what we suffer for love’s sake ceases to be suffering.
—Fénelon.

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