Sweeten all your bitters – Thomas Brooks
“We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.
When a man’s heart is once sanctified, then all things are sanctified to him. O sirs! this is so great and so glorious a privilege, that it is more worth than a world, yes, than many worlds. It is a great mercy that all things may be sanctified to him that is, that all things may so work, as to make him more and more holy:
that every cross may make him more holy, and
that every comfort may make him more holy;
that every mercy may make him more holy, and
that every misery may make him more holy;
that every ordinance may make him more holy, and
that every providence may make him more holy;
that every affliction at home may make him more holy, and
that every judgment abroad may make him more holy.
Every condition is sweet when it is sanctified to us:
sickness is as sweet as health when it is sanctified to us:
weakness is as sweet as strength when it is sanctified to us;
poverty is as sweet as riches when it is sanctified to us;
disgrace is as sweet as honor when it is sanctified to us;
bonds are as sweet as liberty when they are sanctified to us;
death is as sweet as life when it is sanctified to us.
Look! as no condition can be a happy condition which is not a sanctified condition just so, no condition can be a miserable condition, which is a sanctified condition. Now this is only the holy man’s privilege, the holy man’s mercy to have every estate and every condition sanctified unto him; and this indeed is the cream and crown of all our mercies to have them sanctified unto us, ay, and every bitter will be sweet, yes very sweet, when it is sanctified unto us.
What though your mercies, O Christian, are fewer than others’, and lesser than others’, and leaner than others’, and shorter than others’ yet you have no reason to complain, as long as your mercies are sanctified mercies.
What though . . .
your trials are greater than others’, and
your burden is heavier than others’, and
your sorrows are deeper than others’, and
your crosses comes thicker than others
yet you have no cause to complain, as long as they are sanctified.
Are you a holy person? Oh then remember for your comfort, that . . .
every bit of bread you eat is sanctified, and every draught you drink is sanctified, and every suit of clothes you wear is sanctified; the beds you lie on are sanctified, and the stools you sit on are sanctified; the very air you breathe in is sanctified, and the very ground you tread on is sanctified; every penny in your purse is sanctified, and every dollar in your shop is sanctified; whatever you have at home is sanctified, and whatever you have abroad is sanctified.
Oh! how should the sense of these things . . .
sweeten all your bitters, and
turn your hell into heaven, and
wipe all tears from your eyes, and
turn your sighing into singing, and
your mourning into rejoicing, etc.
