Consolation Versus Suffering
By I. H. Evans
Paul wrote to his brethren in Corinth: “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” What soldier of the cross cannot attest that the sufferings of Christ abound in us? However our fancy may have imagined the Master’s service, experience bears testimony to the trials. A recruiting officer often slips a dollar into a young man’s hand, and tells him of the pleasure and ease of a soldier’s life; that he has but little to do save to parade in his flaming colors, be honored of men, and go straight on to glory. Not so, however, the Captain of our salvation. When he makes his call for recruits, he uses no deception. He specifies the conditions, not omitting the hardships, the demands, and the reward. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” His very call is to self-denial, to abandonment of self,—to caring nothing for one’s life or earthly prospects. Again he said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” No earthly tie is too sacred for Christ to sever. He writes his name above every name in the hearts of his followers. Friends, family, relatives, earthly possessions,—all become secondary when once the heart is enlisted in his service. Not that his follower loves his friends less or is less lovable; but the enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman then springs forth. So the Master adds, “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.” Here is the call of our great Captain. In it he specifies self-denial, cross-bearing, alienation of friends, foes, hatred, reproach, and death; but adds to his call the soul-stirring peroration: “Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” Now notice: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” There is to be plenty of suffering. It is to abound, to be in abundance,—no stint in the measure,—no meager amount. It is to be a river, a sea, an ocean of suffering. Sometimes it will seem that a whole Niagara of woe, and trouble, and misfortune, has swept down upon the soul in an unexpected hour, and we cry with the psalmist: “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.” Whose suffering is to abound?—“As the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” Then these sufferings are not our own; they are Christ’s. Says some one: If suffering is the lot of Christians, then I am surely one. Yes, but mere suffering is no evidence of discipleship. The wicked suffer. They are sick. They have rheumatism, and heart trouble, and stomach trouble, and poverty, and death, and at last end in a lake of fire. Suffering, then, is not all the text implies; the suffering must be of a specific kind,—it must be the suffering of Christ. This is what the text requires. What, then, are Christ’s sufferings?—O, Christ’s sufferings were sufferings for others,—sufferings that he did not bring upon himself by wrongdoing; but which came to him while he was faithfully carrying out God’s will. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem his stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was10wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. . . . And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Ye who would know Christ’s sufferings, behold them here! Not one thread of self in all this glorious apparel of character! ’Tis a royal robe, fit only for him who wove it—Prince Immanuel. And would ye know whence he gathered the material for this matchless character? Let me tell you. He gathered up all the griefs and sorrows, the sins and broken hearts, the blasted hopes and ruined lives; he took all the slanders and envies, the covetousness and shame, the woe and misery; he searched out all the impenitence and ingratitude, the broken vows and rebellions of a lost world, and made them his own, and suffered for them. The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering. The sinless One became the chief of sinners. Never a crime so black, never a wrong so unjust, never a deed so heinous, but for it Christ was reckoned the transgressor. Take all the covetousness, and lying, and stealing, and adulteries, and murders, and disobedience to parents, and Sabbath breaking, and blasphemies, and idolatry, in all ages past and in all time to come, and concentrate them into one life, and make that life answerable for all these deeds, although guilty of none of them; and then strip him of all human comfort, and hide the Father’s face from him, till in dying agony he cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and you have Christ’s sufferings. O, says one, then who ever abounded in Christ’s sufferings? Ye innumerable multitude of martyred saints of ages past, make bare your scars, by sword, and famine, and stake, and dungeon cell, and prison bar, and show the church militant the measure of your sufferings for Christ! In whom to-day do the sufferings of Christ abound? Tempted and tried soul, thou in whom are burning the fires of passion and lust and appetite, but who art determined to die rather than to yield, it is in thee! O man, O woman, whosoever thou art, wheresoever is thine abiding place, by whatsoever name thou art known among men, if, in thy breast thou art carrying an unspeakable grief, for Christ’s sake, to shield his name from reproach; if thou art wronged by friend or foe, but dost patiently bear it; if the love that should be thine is given to another; if all men cast out thy name as evil for Christ’s sake, because of the truth that is dear to thee,—then the sufferings of Christ abound in thy life. But now the rest of the verse: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” In whom are the sufferings of Christ, to him is offered also the consolation by Christ. But some people seem so fond of their grief that they refuse consolation. I met a woman once who had lost two of her children. She mourned, and had been mourning for months before I met her. Like Rachel, she refused to be comforted; and her sufferings drove her from God into Egyptian darkness. Here is a mother who has done her best, by precept and example, to train her children for God. Day by day she consecrated them to him in her prayers; but now they have plunged into sin and the world, and she cries, All my prayers are unheard, and all my life of toil is wasted. I shall never be happy again. Over in that house death came a few weeks ago, and laid the husband to rest. A pale mother, with five small children, stands weeping, to-night, beside yon little mound of earth. In the bitterness of her grief she cries, My God, my God, why hast thou done this? Family reputation is gone; the family whose name was so honored and respected,—all blighted in a day; some cherished friend gone down to ignominy and shame. In sorrow they cry, My grief is killing me. I shall never be comforted. Where is there any consolation for grief like mine? But now notice our text: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” What a blessed proportion—the one equaling the other. As the sufferings abound, so the consolation abounds also. The greater the sufferings of Christ, the greater the measure of his consolation. One offsets the other. As he bore our sins, so hath he borne our griefs and sorrows. “In all their affliction he was afflicted.” The Christian Rejoices in Suffering
Then the Christian is joyful amid his sufferings, because they are not his own, but a portion of Christ’s. Were they our own, and not for another’s sake, with no comfort to be had, well might we weep. All the watery things of earth would fail to make tears enough for us. But now it is all for Christ’s sake. We take joyfully the spoiling of our goods. We lay our loved ones down to sleep in mother earth, sorrowing not “as others which have no hope.” If it be a bitter and dark future, what matters it, so long as Christ our Lord sanctifies it, and the Holy Ghost still gives us courage, energy, and strength? If loved ones are untrue, take the heart that loved, perhaps too fondly, and adore your Master with it. He abideth faithful. Never a heart loved him too ardently. Never was a secret whispered to Jesus betrayed. To suffer for Christ’s sake has inspiration in it. Martyrs have sung praises to God amid the devouring flames, and cried, “I lie down upon beds of roses.” Paul and Silas, with lacerated backs and feet fast in the stocks, held a midnight praise service in the inner prison. Hear the testimony of the man who said, “I die daily;” “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” He says, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” O faltering one! O tried and tempted one! O heart well nigh crushed with the burden of thy griefs and sorrows! hear me for one moment. Thy sufferings are the sufferings of Jesus. Thy trials are his trials. Side by side thou dost fight with the Captain of thy salvation. Every foe is his foe; Christ is with thee to bear his part most valiantly. Every blow is a blow aimed at him. Every slander is a slander on Christ. The battle is the Lord’s; he is leading in the fight. See the drops of blood bursting from his veins as he deals death blows to thy carnal desires, and is setting the hedge of defense about thee. Now, in the midst of the conflict, he casts a glance at thy unstained brow, and says, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Then courage, soldiers of the cross. The Captain’s “visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” He stays not when once a soul has enlisted under his banner, till victory is won. He knows no defeat. He never lost a soul that trusted in him. For six thousand years he has been the defense of his people, and he knows thee. Hear him cry, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Keep thine eye on him. In this awful fight let nothing get between thee and Christ. He is truly in earnest with thee. Life to him is nothing if he can only save thee. The battle is the Lord’s; the victory is the Lord’s; and triumphantly shalt thou come through this conflict, if only thou dost patiently fight the battle, and endure the trial. What is suffering to a crown? What is a few years’ trial with Jesus in it as a helper, when compared to eternal life? Then let resignation to his lot, and courage for the fray take possession of every soul.