Affliction Beneficial by Cuyler

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 19, 1882

Affliction Beneficial.

By Cuyler

To ALL who are wondering why a loving God has subjected them so often to the furnace, my only answer is that God owns you and me, and he has a right to do with us just as he pleases. If he wants to keep his silver over a hot flame, until he can see his own countenance reflected in the metal, then he has a right to do so. It is the Lord, it is my loving teacher, it is my heavenly Father; let him do what seemeth him good. He will not lay on one stroke in cruelty or a single one that he cannot give me grace to bear. Life's school-days and nights will soon be over. Pruning-time will soon be ended. The crucibles will not be needed in Heaven.

So, to all my fellow-sufferers who are threading their way through the tunnels of trial, I would say: Tighten your loins with the promises and keep the strong staff of faith well in hand. Trust God in the dark. We are safer with him in the dark than without him in the sunshine. He will not suffer thy foot to stumble. His rod and his staff never break. Why he brought us here we know not now, but shall know hereafter. At the end of the gloomy passage beams the heavenly light. Then comes the exceeding and eternal weight of glory!—Cuyler.