01.01. THERE ARE MANY WOUNDED SPIRITS
"It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart. Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad. The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure." Ecclesiastes 7:2-4
I freely confess to a growing sympathy with my suffering fellow men. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. Often is the heart made better by sorrow and sadness. On earth are always many stricken hearts. The children of sorrow are numbered by the million. The family of the afflicted, for multitude, stands next to the family of man. It never dies out. It is constantly receiving new accessions. We come into the world with a cry, we pass through it in tears, and we leave it with a groan. At the age of one hundred and thirty, Jacob exclaims: "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life." That the wicked should have many sorrows, should surprise no one. God’s Word says it shall be so. Their course of life naturally brings about that result. Destruction and misery are in their ways. A mirthful exterior often conceals a rankling wound. Even in laughter their heart is sorrowful. How can it be otherwise? For Jehovah curses their blessings (Malachi 2:2). But the righteous are not exempt. "God had one Son on earth without sin—but never one without affliction."
"In this wide world, the fondest and the best Are the most tried, most troubled and distressed."
Well, be it so. Night makes the stars shine, and sorrow gives luster to many a character. The Lord deals faithfully with His people. He never promised them ease or exemption from affliction. Jesus said: "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world."
"The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrows are unknown; No traveler ever reached that blessed abode, Who found not thorns and briers in the road."
Genuine sonship with God never exists where men are not brought under the rod of correction (Hebrews 12:8).
Even where gaunt poverty never knocks at the door, nor persecution plies her implements of torture, nor sickness consumes the flesh, yet in some form affliction invades every dwelling of the saints.
It greatly perplexes some to see the apparent confusion which seems to reign on earth. The wisest of mere men said: "All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead" (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3).
Sometimes things are even more perplexing, for a wicked man may for a long time seem to have uninterrupted prosperity, while his godly neighbor experiences sad reverses. Asaph had sore travail of soul on this very matter. He became envious at the foolish when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. They were not troubled as other men, neither were they plagued like other men. But when he saw the doom that awaited them, he ceased to envy them (Psalms 73:1-28).
Waters of bitterness have always been given to the righteous (2 Timothy 3:11-12). See how Paul fared: "When we were come unto Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears." Indeed such has been the common lot of God’s people. Read history. Nor do afflictions commonly diminish with age. In fact, some of them are usually much increased as we go on in life. So said the Preacher (Ecclesiastes 12:1-5). In Psalms 90:1-17, Moses teaches the same thing. Our outward man perishes, and so we should faint if our inward man were not renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). Owen says: "If it be so that in the daily decays of the outward man, in all the approaches of its dissolution, we have inward spiritual revivals and renovations, we shall not faint in what we undergo. And without such continual renovations we shall faint in our distresses, whatever other things we may have, or whatever we pretend to the contrary."
Blessed is the man that behaves well in affliction. Rough seas and stress of weather make good seamen. Long wars and hard battles make good soldiers. Hall says: "Every man looks fair in a time of prosperity, but the main trial of the Christian is in suffering." Let us cultivate the spirit of those lines now so famous:
"I ask not that my course be calm and still; No, here too, Lord be done your holy will; I ask but for a quiet, child-like heart; Though thronging cares and restless toil be mine, Yet may my heart remain. forever thine—Draw it from earth and fix it where you art.
"I ask you not to finish soon the strife, The toil, the trouble of this earthly life; No, be my peace amid its grief and pain. I pray not, grant me now your realm on high; No, before I die, let me to evil die, And through your Cross my sins be wholly slain."