The Importance Of Suffering To The Christian

This Comes From The Preface Of This Book, Click Image To Get A Copy

“SUFFERING is a world-wide fact.  No man, escapes it.  It waits for every man to enter into the world and it walks him to the grave.  It smites every man and grasps the whole of him; body and soul, heart and mind.  It stalks him over the entire breadth of his being and of the multiple powers he bears within himself.

Like the Cross, its loftiest and most meaningful symbol, suffering is scandal for some, folly for others.  For others still, it is the acid test of faithfulness, the golden key to perfection and union with Christ, the fertile seed of glory.  Living faith and love determine our reaction to suffering.  On instinct most men repulse it violently like a foe-which it is, in fact, if they see it from only the natural point of view.  Some welcome it with a smile as the bearer of grace.  Thus suffering, for some, remains sterile; for others, it becomes dangerous, and for others, it makes statement and merits redemption.

It is most important, then, to know how to accept suffering; and surely the supreme work of mercy is that difficult science, that delicate art, of teaching men to carry their cross.  Not everyone can excel in this art or teach this exalted science effectively, but only he who has great heart and the supernatural experience of sorrow.”

Views: 16