Murmuring and Complaining.
By James White
During the period of our connection with the Review Office, and our frequent and somewhat extensive travels, we have had a favorable opportunity to learn much of the spirit and influence of those who indulge in murmuring and complaining. And we are prepared to say that, while no good follows from these things, evil, and only evil, is the sure result. In the first place, such persons have no real faith in God. Those who confide in him, and have a good hold from above, can believe on him in adversity, and can go forward in the line of their own duty, trusting in Him who has said that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” That man that has real, confiding faith in God, who walks with God, lives in God, and God in him; that minds his own business, searches his own heart and life, speaks well of God’s providences, and of his people, will find neither time nor disposition to complain, find fault, stir up distrust, or murmur against the providences and the servants of God. Instead of talking of his sufferings, or of his sicknesses, or troubles, or losses, and groaning and complaining over these things, and casting a cloud everywhere, he will make the best of these light afflictions; and, as far as possible, he will rise above them, talk himself out of them, and believe and hope himself, with the help of God, free from them. While the complainer, the murmurer, the whiner, and the fretter, are sinking without the presence of God, he is rising in God, and gaining victories, spiritual, mental, and, perhaps, physical.