Proverbs 3:11-12

Fifth Address. Chap. 3. Proverbs 3:11

11, 12. This short paragraph is at once in contrast and in harmony, with what precedes and follows it. It states the contrast that it may introduce the harmony. The pathway of wisdom, so the rest of the chapter insists, is the pathway of temporal prosperity. But the experience of life proves that there is another side to the truth. There is, these verses say, a contradictory side, but it is so in appearance not in reality; for to the childlike follower of wisdom the apparent exceptions and contradictions are but as passing discords and minor strains that lend force and sweetness to the overmastering harmony of love.

Christian teaching itself has no better solution than this to give of the mystery of suffering. See Hebrews 12:3-13.