Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
Be wise then, dear child of God, and look upon your present affliction as a chastening. “What son is he whom the father chastens not?” “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” There is not a more profitable instrument in all God’s house than the rod. No honey was sweeter than that which dropped from the end of Jonathan’s rod, but that is nothing compared to the sweetness of the consolation which comes through Jehovah’s rod.
Our brightest joys are the birth of our bitterest griefs. When the woman has her travail pangs, joy comes to the house because a child is born—and sorrow is to us also, full often, the moment of the birth of our graces. A chastened spirit is a gracious spirit—and how shall we obtain it unless we are chastened? Like our Lord Jesus, we learn obedience by the things which we suffer. God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without sorrow—and He never will while the world stands. Let us, therefore, bless God for all His dealings and in a filial spirit confess, “You, Lord, have chastened me.”
For the reference, see C. H. Spurgeon on the sorrows of God’s sons.
Our brightest joys are the birth of our bitterest griefs. When the woman has her travail pangs, joy comes to the house because a child is born—and sorrow is to us also, full often, the moment of the birth of our graces. A chastened spirit is a gracious spirit—and how shall we obtain it unless we are chastened? Like our Lord Jesus, we learn obedience by the things which we suffer. God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without sorrow—and He never will while the world stands. Let us, therefore, bless God for all His dealings and in a filial spirit confess, “You, Lord, have chastened me.”
For the reference, see C. H. Spurgeon on the sorrows of God’s sons.
