“NOT WORTHY TO BE COMPARED”
By L. A. R.
“FOR I reckon,” says the servant of God, speaking by inspiration of the Spirit,—“for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” The troubles we have here, the inconveniences we have here, our discomforts, our sorrows, our sufferings, are not worthy to be put side by side with the glories that await us. It is not fit, or appropriate, to speak of our trials, our difficulties, however great they may be, however deep they may set, and place them beside the wonderful things that are promised for God’s people; because rightly viewed, those future experiences and realities make these things of human life to-day insignificant and unworthy of consideration. First of all, everything that can come into human life is limited in time. It can not be more than threescore or fourscore years, at best; and what are eighty years when placed beside the unmeasured cycles of unending ages? Comparing eighty years with eternal years by proportion, sinks the eighty years into a mere dot that soon becomes invisible, and all that life has suffered here becomes swallowed up, engulfed, and the former things are no longer mentioned, neither weigh upon the mind. Isa. 65: 17. And again, everything that causes suffering here, if rightly taken, shall be merely an instrument, a minister, to add luster to our lives here, and give us an infinite weight of glory over there. Yes, says inspiration, “our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us.” And what does it work?—It works for us “more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.” That is when our minds are in the right attitude, “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4: 17, 18. And so we may have that very attitude of mind, knowing that in all things we triumph in Christ. We may say, with the old hymn: “But hush, my sad spirit!
The worst that can come
But shortens my journey,
And hastens me home.” Let us remember, in our deep and severe trials, that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,” and “our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.”