Romans 8:18

THE MINISTRY OF SUFFERING

‘The sufferings of this present time.’

Romans 8:18

The mention of the necessity of suffering, going along with the love and the affliction that we have in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that we may be partakers of His glory, sets the Apostle Paul very busy upon comparing the smallness of any sufferings that we may be called upon to undergo in this world with the far more exceeding weight of glory in the world to come.

But I want to engage your thoughts upon what a very striking instance this is of the way in which every single thing that can be done, every motive by which the human mind can possibly be influenced for good, is ever employed in Holy Scripture for the express purpose of bringing the souls of men nearer to God. Fear, love, self-interest, desire after that which is good, everything that can be rightly and legitimately used, is employed in the endeavour to call the soul of man to higher things.

I. The ministry of suffering.—So with sorrow and the suffering of various kinds, which the Apostle calls ‘the sufferings of the present time,’ there is a mystery about it all, and most of our questionings about the matter must of necessity remain unanswered until that day when the darkness of earth gives place to the light of heaven. But nothing can be plainer than those words in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in that very remarkable passage where we are reminded that we are the sons of God. We call to mind that the souls of the sons of God are in the hand of God, and there can no torment touch them. We are also reminded not to regard God’s chastening lightly, not to faint when we are reproved by Him, ‘for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.’ The wisest and most loving earthly father may not always chasten wisely, but whatever chastening our Heavenly Father may see fit to send us is sure to be done wisely and lovingly, and will be, whether we judge it so or not, for our profit and our good. Every trial and every trouble that comes into the life of a believer carries with it some hidden gift from God. Here there are lessons—and the older the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ grows the more he discovers it—which can only be learned in the school of adversity, and there are blessings which can never be offered at all unless we are ready to pay the price of pain.

II. There is quite a common misconception with regard to prayer in this matter.—We may ask earnestly and with importunity that the trial and the suffering may pass, indeed we often do so, but it must always be done reverently, leaving it to God to decide what is best. There is no better example of prayer of this kind to be found than that special prayer in the Prayer Book that we use in the office of the Communion for the Sick. ‘If it be Thy gracious will’—that is the one basis on which all supplication must rest, for if God has a loving purpose and a mysterious design for our good in whatever shape He may choose to send it, we cannot afford to lose it. God never yet sent a trial to any child of man without sending at the same time strength to endure it. In the sufferings of this present time relief is not always given by the lifting up of the weight of sorrow or pain, but by the granting of God-given strength for patient and victorious endurance.

Rev. T. H. S. Polehampton.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING

To the question, Why is all this evil, this sin and suffering, in the world? the truest wisdom will be that which answers, We cannot tell. Some partial hint of an answer we may guess; but to solve the riddle is impossible. Yet our duty is clear; our ‘marching orders,’ as the great Duke of Wellington once styled Christian duty, are unmistakable. Resist the evil temptation: help is ever nigh for those who trust their Leader and call for His help. It is because we fail to realise the certainty of the promised help that too often we succumb.

I. What of the sufferings?—Here our position is a very simple one. We cannot, indeed, bring the sufferings to an end. These will doubtless cover the earth while earth shall last; but we can battle with them, and seek, each one of us, to lessen the sum total of human suffering. Be our endeavour done in His Name, Who suffered past imagining for us, we become in a sense fellow-workers with Him. The thought ‘for His sake’ must be the animating idea throughout, and the caution that we must serve God with our understanding as well as with our heart must guide us to shape the work rightly.

II. Think how multifold human suffering is, and therefore how correspondingly varied must be the attempts to cope with it.—Hunger and bodily disease and pain, the helplessness of childhood, the infirmities of old age, exist in our sight, and we can all do a little, however little, to lessen the sum total. There are noble lives in the world, men and women, whose every thought is how to lessen the load of suffering. Yet there are sufferings worse than bodily pain. There is remorse for wrong done long ago, unrepented of, but unforgotten. Yet here how precious is the help that may be brought, when one who has tasted how gracious the Lord is can bid the remorse turn to repentance, can point above the mists and the clouds to the pure light shining above. These are very obvious cases; but take one less obvious. Think of the suffering arising from isolation, from the absence of kind words and looks of love, perhaps isolation further embittered by harshness or positive unkindness. How far in such a case will the mere kind word, sincerely bestowed, avail. It costs very little; perhaps many a giver of such could not give anything which costs more; yet many a mere kind speech, spoken by one who had nothing else to give, has stilled bitter pain, and, if done for Christ’s sake, will win the blessing promised to the giver of the cup of cold water. Still, when one ponders on the appalling mass of human suffering, the prospect seems to stun the mind; yet there is but one counsel for all: Do what you can, do all you can, do it for Christ and in His sight. May God help us all to realise these as our marching orders at all times.

III. Sooner or later, the worst sufferings of body or mind come to an end, the worst agonies which rack the body, the bitterest pains which torture the mind. For the servant of God, for all who, whether sooner or later, have come to know Him Whom they have believed, what matters the pain then? It is no mere cessation of the pain, no mere resumption of a sort of normal condition; it is the change to a glory, compared with which the old sufferings, aye, and the old joys, however noble and however inspiring, are of no worth. The candlelight is barely visible in the strong sunlight. In the light of the future glory how dim earth’s sorrows and earth’s joys alike!

—Rev. Dr. Sinker.

Illustration

‘We ask, as men for many ages have asked, why such a state of things exists. Why does God permit it to be? Some people speak as though believers in a Supreme, All-ruling Providence must be unduly pressed, as though by a logical dilemma, when it is asked—Does God permit evil, or does it exist independently of His will? If the former, there is a defect in His goodness; if the latter, in His omnipotence. They forget that logic only has force when the disputant is able to command the whole field. We are seeking to reduce a law of the Infinite God within the area of finite human thought.’