The discipline of suffering - Chambers, Oswald
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you. . . . Where- fore let them also that suffer according to the will of god commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful creator. 1 peter 4:12, 19 (RV )
The awful problem of suffering continually crops up in the scriptures, and in life, and remains a mystery. From job until now, and from before job, the mystery of suffering remains. And always, after the noisy clamour of the novice in suffering, and after the words of weight of the veteran; after the sarcasm and cynicism and bitterness of more or less pained people, aye, and after the slander of Satan against god the voice of the spirit sounds clear, hast thou considered my servant job?
Perhaps to be able to explain suffering is the clear- est indication of never having suffered. Sin, suffering, and sanctification are not problems of the mind, but facts of life mysteries that awaken all other mysteries until the heart rests in god, and waiting patiently knows he doeth all things well. Oh, the unspeakable joy of knowing that god reigns! That he is our father, and that the clouds are but the dust of his feet! Religious life is based and built up and matured on primal implicit trust, transfigured by love; the explicit statement of that life can only be made by the spectator, never by the saint.
Some years ago the wife of a murdered missionary in china told me of the blank amazed agony of those days we did not feel, we did not pray, we were dazed with sorrow. She was shown a lock of her little childs golden hair, and told that both husband and child had been discovered murdered, beheaded and naked in a godless chinese town. Shattered and undone, the widow returned with the little ones spared to her to Britain. She did not doubt god, but he did not answer prayer. Oh, how many prayed for my husband, good valued servant of god, but all to no avail. In those days of dull dreary reaction the people who nearly drove her wild with distress were those who knew chapter and verse, the why and where- fore of her suffering and grief. She said, i used to beat a tattoo on the floor with my foot while they chattered, crying in my heart how long, o lord, how long? One day as she lay prostrate on the sofa the old minister who had known her husband in the glad other days, entered the room softly, he did not speak but came gently over to her and kissed her on the fore- head and went out without saying a word. From that moment, she said, my heart began to heal.
The unexplained things in life are more than the explained. God seems careless as to whether men understand him or not; he scarcely vindicates his saints to men. Martha and Mary tell Jesus of the sickness of lazarus lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick; but Jesus sends no word, nor does he go. Lazarus dies, is buried, and four days afterwards jesus appears. If you do not understand Martha as she exclaims, in effect, oh, i know that my brother will rise again at the last day, but that does not explain why you did not come when i sent for you; he need not have died if you had come if you do not understand Martha, and are satisfied with any explanation to be deduced from this incident, you are unaware of the problem of suffering, unaware of the poignant agony of gods silences.
An informal consideration of 1 peter 4:1219 will serve to knit into some kind of order what we consider the bible indicates and implies with regard to the discipline of suffering.
The springs of suffering
For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler in other mens matters. (1 peter 4:15 rv)
The first spring of suffering from the bible point of view is twofoldwrong doing and wrong temper.
(a) wrong doing
For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer.
. . . The blasting blight of wrongdoing finds its expres- sion in the literature of all the ages; it is a suffering that works as cruelly as the grave, and is as undying as the eternal ages. By way of expression to the suffering that springs from wrongdoing, my erss 10 words are final
When this mans best desire and highest aim
Had ended in the deed of traitorous shame.
When to his bloodshot eyes grew wild and dim
The stony faces of the sanhedrim,
When in his rage he could no longer hear
Mens voices nor the sunlight nor the air,
Nor sleep, nor waking, nor his own quick breath,
Nor god in heaven, nor anything but death,
i bowed my head, and through my fingers ran
tears for the end of that Iscariot man,
lost in the hopeless struggle of the soul
to make the done undone, the broken whole.
The sense of the irrevocable wrings the human spirit with the awful suffering of what might have been. It begins its records in the far past, hoary with the ages, when paradise was lost, and the cherubim with the circling fiery sword branded the life of Adam and eve with nevermore, nevermore. It embraces that lonely murderer Cain, who in his undying pain cried out, my punishment is greater than i can bear. It pauses around esau when, too late, remorse seized that strong man and made him weep those tears of bitter repentance, all in vain; and its records of the unspeakable suffering of the wrong- doer remain till today-
oh, brother! Howsoever, wheresoer
thou hidest now the hell of thy despair
hear that one heart can pity, one can know
with thee thy hopeless, solitary woe.
F. W. H. Myers
(b) Wrong temper
There is also suffering that springs from the wrong temper for let none of you suffer . . . As a meddler in other mens matters (RV). From talking in the wrong mood springs a suffering so keen, so stinging, so belittling, so hopeless, that it debases and drives the suffering one still lower. The old song from the ancient pilgrims song book has this thorn at the heart of its suffering
Deliver my soul, o lord , from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given unto thee, and what shall be done more unto thee, thou deceitful tongue? It is as the sharp arrows of the mighty man [mg], with coals of juniper. (psalm 120:24 RV )
The suffering which springs from being a meddler in other mens matters (a busybody) is humiliating to the last degree. A free translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:11 might well read: study to shut up and mind your own business, and among all the texts we hang on our walls, let this be one. The suffering that arises from a wrong temper has no refining side, but only a humiliating side. Therefore take heed to your spirit. A blameworthy temper of mind is the most damning thing in the human soul. Peter, as a meddler in other mens matters, received a deserved rebuke from our lord: peter therefore seeing him saith to Jesus, lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, if i will that he tarry till i come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me (RV ). And surely the rebuke contained in our lords answer to Martha is of the same nature Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her (RV ), i. E. , she is taking her orders from me.
How will sad memory point where, here and there,
friend after friend, by falsehood or by fate,
from him or from each other parted were,
and love sometimes becomes the nurse of hate!
. . . Rather, he thinks he held not duly dear
love, the best gift that man on man bestows,
while round his downward path, recluse and drear,
he feels the chill indifferent shadows close.
Why did i not, his spirit murmurs deep,
at every cost of the momentary pride,
preserve the love for which in vain i weep;
why had i wish or hope or sense beside?
O cruel issue of some selfish thought!
O long, long echo of some angry tone!
O fruitless lesson, mercilessly taught,
alone to lingerand to die alone!
Houghton11
The wreck of many friendships has started in this mutiny of busybody meddle someness. Suffering as a busybody (kjv) and listening to slander ends in pitiable pain. This wrong temper slanders the almighty, and men believe the busybody gossip of the devil and sever friendship with god. Oh, the damnable pangs caused by that arch busybody, the accuser of our brethren.
This then is the first spring of suffering, and the spirit warns men lest they drink of this spring and endure a suffering that is neither grand nor ennobling.
(c) Suffering as a christian
But if a man suffer as a christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify god in this name. (1 peter 4:16 RV)
The suffering that arises from superiority, from an essential difference from the societies around, is an ennobling and god-glorifying thing. Our designation of christian is of divine appointment, whether it comes from the versatile wit of antioch, or from the reverent respect of the gentile; to live worthily of the name of christian is to suffer persecution. To suffer because of meekness is an exalting, refining and god- glorifying suffering. And mark this and mark it well, to suffer as a christian is a shameful thing in the eyes of the societies of this world. The friends who in your hour of trial and slander, gather round to sup- port and stand with you, are first amazed, then dazed, and then disgusted, when they find that you really do not mean to stand up for yourself, but meekly to submit. In that hour when your friends pity you (oh, the shame of being pitied, says the world; but what a god-glorifying thing it is, for to be pitied by the world is to be pitied by god) he himself will come and whisper to your spirit blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the son of mans sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in heaven (Luke 6:2223 RV ).
To suffer as a christian is not to be marked peculiar because of your views, or because you will not bend to conventionality; these things are not christian, but ordinary human traits from which all men suffer irrespective of creed or religion or no religion. To suffer as a christian is to suffer because there is an essential difference between you and the world which rouses the contempt of the world, and the dis- gust and hatred of the spirit that is in the world. To suffer as a christian is to have no answer when the worlds satire is turned on you, as it was turned on Jesus Christ when he hung upon the cross, when they turned his words into jest and jeer; they will do the same to you. He gave no answer, neither can you.
. . . But if a man suffer as a christian, let him not be ashamed (rv). It was in the throes of this binding, amazing problem that peter staggered. Peter meant to go with his lord to death, and he did go; but never at any moment did he imagine that he would have to go without him that he would see Jesus taken by the power of the world, as a lamb that is led to the slaughter (RV), and have no answer, no word to explain that froze him to the soul. That is what it means to suffer as a christian to hear men taunt him, see them tear his words to pieces, and feel you cannot answer; to smart under their merciless, pitying sarcasm because you belong to that contemptible sect of Christians. When the heart is stung in the first moments of such suffering, the language of the poet may suit it.
I can simply wish i might refute you,
Wish my friend would, by a word, a wink,
Bid me stop that foolish mouth, you brute, you!
He keeps absent, why, i cannot think.
Never mind! Though foolishness may flout me,
One things sure enough: tis neither frost, no,
Nor fire, shall freeze or burn from out me
Thanks for truththough falsehood, gained though lost.
Robert browning
But when you have been comforted by his rod and his staff, you count it all joy to go through this god-glorifying suffering. . . . But let him glorify god in this name. Suffering as a christian is the second great spring of suffering, whose waters purify and ennoble the soul.
How very hard it is to be
A christian! Hard for you and me, .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. And the sole thing that i remark
Upon this difficulty, this;
We do not see it where it is,
At the beginning of the race:
As we proceed, it shifts its place,
And where we looked for crowns to fall,
We find the tugs to come, thats all.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. And i find it hard
To be a christian, as i said!
Still every now and then my head
Raised glad, sinks mournfulall grows drear
Spite of the sunshine, . . . .
But easter-day breaks! But
Christ rises! Mercy every way
Is infinite, and who can say?
Robert browning.
(d) Suffering according to the will of god
Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of god commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful creator. (1 peter 4:19 RV )
If the springs of suffering we have been consider- ing arise in mystery, this spring overwhelms its own source in mystery, as well as the soul it covers. The great tides lift here, the splendid solitude of gods purpose transfigures agony into redemption, and the baffling hurricanes speed the soul like a flaming arrow on to gods great day. G. K. Chesterton, writing on job, says in his own individual, sufficient way
But god comforts job with indecipherable mys- tery, and for the first time job is comforted. Eliphaz gives one answer, job gives another answer, and the question still remains an open wound. God simply refuses to answer, and somehow the question is settled. Job flings at god one riddle, god lings back at job a hundred riddles, and job is at peace; he is comforted with conundrums.
When all the trite things, the sentimental things, the poetic things and the explanatory things have been said, the still small voice of the spirit intro- duces the perpetual conundrum hast thou considered my servant job? And after a pause, when our commonplace shoes are off our feet and we stand before the cross, the conundrum is put still more deeply and more perplexinglythou art my beloved son; in thee i am well pleased. Yet it pleased the lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief, and we bow our head while our spirit murmurs, who hath believed our report (or, that which we have heard? ) and to whom hath the arm of the lord been revealed?
This spring of suffering, suffering according to the will of god, is a great deep. Job did not know the preface to his own story, neither does any man. Job was never told that god and the devil had made a battleground of his soul. Jobs suffering was not for his own sake, not for his perfecting or purifying, that was incidental; job suffered according to the will of god.
When shall we learn that gods great work is the production of saints? It is humbling beyond words to be told by our father that it was not for love of the truth that we had been bold, but that the great labour allowed us was the means of releasing our imprisoned hearts and was for our own peace. God seems careless over what men do at times.
The words of our lord sound from those blessed Palestinian days with a deeper, truer significance: if any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me, (RV), that is, i must never do gods will according to my will. That surely is the very essence of satans temptation of our lord, and of every sanctified soul take your right to yourself and do gods will according to your own sanctified understanding of it. Never! Said Jesus, for i am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me; and in the hour when dilemma perplexes him, the waves and the billows overwhelm him, and the noise of the water-spouts deafen him, the disciple learns the meaning of his masters follow me.
In the course of a sermon preached by father frere in st. Pauls cathedral some years ago on the fourfold attitude towards suffering, he said this have you, i wonder, ever had to do something to a pet dog in order to get it well, something which hurt it very much pulled a thorn out of its foot, or washed out a wound, or anything of that sort? If so, you will remember the expression of dumb eloquence in the eyes of the dog as he looked at you; what you were doing hurt him tremendously and yet there seemed to speak from his eyes such a trust of you as if he would say, i don’t in the least understand what you are doing, what you are doing hurts, but go on with it.
That is an apt illustration of suffering according to the will of god. It is very necessary to be brought to the stage of trust in our experience of suffering; perhaps we are brought to it most acutely when in the case of someone we love we have to look up mutely to god and say, i don’t understand it at all, but go on with what you are doing. That marks a real stage of learning to trust in god, and it is a step towards something still further on. Spiritual experience has begun; suffering has already deepened the soul. To look on at suffering with eyes that know not god is to make the mouth slander the highest. To sympathise with men who suffer, without first knowing god, is to hate him.
Therefore gird up thyself, and come to stand
unflinching under the unfaltering hand.
That waits to prove thee to the uttermost.
It were not hard to suffer by his hand
if thou couldst see his face; but in the dark!
That is the one last trial: be it so.
Christ was forsaken, so must thou be
Too how couldest thou suffer but in seeming, else?
Thou wilt not see the face nor feel the hand,
Only the cruel crushing of the feet,
When through the bitter night the lord comes down
To tread the winepress. Not by sight, but faith,
Endure, endure, be faithful to the end!
H. E. Hamilton king12
The signs of suffering
In the cruel fire of sorrow
Cast thy heart, do not faint or wail!
Let thy hand be firm and steady,
Do not let thy spirit quail!
But wait till the trial is over
And take thy heart again;
For as gold is tried by fire
So a heart must be tried by pain.
I shall know by the gleam and glitter
Of the golden chain you wear
By your hearts calm strength in loving,
Of the fire they have had to bear.
Beat on, true heart, for ever!
Shine bright, strong golden chain,
And bless the cleansing fire
And the furnace of living pain!
A. Procter13
Men and women betray their suffering in different ways by threatening and evil doing; by sullenness and quietism; or by active well doing.
Suffering, when the heart knows nothing of trust in god and love for the highest, shows itself in rancorous spite and evil deeds. The sarcasms, the cynicisms, the satires, the slanders, the murders, the wars, the law suits, all these spring from this source, and are usually, although not always, the sign of suffering which springs from wrongdoing. When we sum up the history of the various civilisations whose records are available we find it made up mostly of these forms of suffering, and we are reminded of the voice of the ancient of days echoing down the agesin sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life (genesis 3:17). It is caught up in the reflections of the wisest man that ever lived for all his days are but sorrows, and his travail is grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest (ecclesiastes 2:23 rv ); and uttered again in connection with gods servant job, who remains the incarnation of the problem of sufferingfor affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; but man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward ( job 5:67 RV ).
Suffering is the heritage of the bad, of the penitent, and of the son of god. Each one ends in the cross. The bad thief is crucified, the penitent thief is crucified, and the son of god is crucified. By these signs we know the widespread heritage of suffering.
Judge not! The workings of his brain
and of his heart thou canst not see;
what looks to thy dim eyes a stain,
in gods pure light may only be
a scar, brought from some well-won field
where thou wouldst only faint and yield.
The look, the air that frets thy sight
may be a token, that below
the soul has closed in deadly fight
with some infernal fiery foe,
whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace,
and cast thee shuddering on thy face!
The fall thou darest to despise;
may be the angels slackened hand
has suffered it, that he may rise
and take a firmer, surer stand;
or, trusting less to earthly things,
may henceforth learn to use his wings.
So judge none lost but wait and see,
with hopeful pity, not disdain!
The depth of the abyss may be
the measure of the height of pain,
and love and glory that may raise
this soul to god in after days.
A. Procter
another sign of suffering among men is characterised by sullenness and quietism. There is a luxury of suffering that fosters the growth of the most dangerous isolation of pride, and produces a kind of human sphinx, shrouded in mystery, which seems more profound than it is. This luxury of suffering is preeminently cowardly as well as proud, its habit is the habit of the cloister or nunnery. According to the character of the individual it is sullen and gloomy in its expression, or mystical and remote in its quietism. The portrayal of the sullen type is well expressed in psalm 106:2425. Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word: but murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the lord.
Bishop paget 14 in a remarkable essay on the sin of accidie deals with this suffering in a unique exposition of the sullen temperament; and the apostle Paul uses a significant phrase in the same connection . . . But the sorrow of the world worketh death (2 Corinthians 7:10). The ultimate result of this kind of suffering is a hatred of holier livesbut all the congregation bade stone them with stones (numbers 14:10); envy and murmuring at the messengers of God they envied Moses also in the camp, and aaron the saint of the lord (psalm 106:16), and sullen contempt of gods word. Dante places these souls in the fifth circle, tormented in the stygian lake
fixd in the slime, they say: sad once were we,
in the sweet air made gladsome by the sun,
carrying a foul and lazy mist within:
now in these murky settlings are we sad.
The other aspect of this sign of suffering is differ- ent in character and quality, viz. , quietism, a life spent
In the luxury of reverie and contemplation. This type of suffering was very common in mediaeval christianity, it produces a quietness apart, and flatly contradicts the very spirit of Christianity. The psalmist of old tried to be a quietist, but he found himself too robust, it would not work with him i said, i will take heed to my ways, that i sin not with my tongue: i will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence, i held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me; while i was musing the fire kindled: then spake i with my tongue . . . (psalm 39:13 RV). This kind of sanctity, so called, is highly esteemed in all religions, but it engenders a pseudo-mysticism that inevitably ends in private illuminations apart from the written word and prayer, and actually spells strong delusion. The true element in evangelical mysticism, which is easily distinguishable from quietism, is the mystery of a human life visibly manifesting the life of the lord Jesus in its mortal flesh.
This brings us to the third sign of suffering active well-doing. Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of god commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful creator (1 peter 4:19 RV). The new testament idea of a saint is not a cloistered sentiment gathering around the head of an individual like a halo of glory, but a holy character reacting on life in deeds of holiness. I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit ( john 15:12 rv). The cleansing of the individual branch is here made the sign of well- doing.
When a soul experiences suffering caused by the cleansing process and the pruning knife, he knows he is bearing fruit. A subtle law, which is ever and anon lost sight of by christian teachers, is that an emotion which does not react in a proper manner will find an outlet in an improper manner. How often religious fervour and emotion, not finding reaction in its proper sphere, has sought an outlet in a lower, baser form. How sad and sordid and sorrowful is the connection between high spiritual emotions and sensual disaster. The hugging to ones self of any spiritual emotion is eminently dangerous.
This line of thought throws an important side- light on our lords interview with Mary magdalene on the resurrection morning. Mary thought to hold Jesus to herself, to have him again as a blessed com- panion for herself, but jesus said to hertake not hold on me [mg]; for i am not yet ascended unto the father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, i ascend unto my father and your father, and my god and your god ( john 20:17 rv). There, as ever, the emphasis is on doing, not on contemplation. Du bose says
In the first place, Jesus took definite part with the west against the east in making the distinctive note of life not apatheia but energia. Thought, desire, will were not to be abjured and disowned in despair, through the overpowering sense of their futility. Life was not to be reduced to zero through their renunciation, but raised to infinity through their affirmation and satisfaction. The life of Christianity is a life of infinite energy because it is a life of infinite faith and hope. (the gospel in the gospels, p. 19)
The essential difference between the stoic and the saint is just at the point where they seem most alike. Dr. George matheson15 points this out in his book entitled studies in the portrait of Christ. A stoic overcomes the world by passionlessness; the saints overcoming is by passion. This suffering in active well-doing results in a blessed and beneficent reac- tion on life.
Arise! This day shall shine for evermore,
to thee a star divine on times dark shore!
Till now thy soul has been all glad and gay;
bid it awake and look at grief to-day!
. . . But now the stream has reached a dark, deep sea;
and sorrow, dim and crowned, is waiting thee.
Each of gods soldiers bears a sword divine:
stretch out thy trembling hands to-day for thine!
. . . Then with slow, reverent step, and beating heart,
from out thy joyous day thou must depart,
and leaving all behind come forth alone.
To join the chosen band around the throne:
raise up thine eyes! Be strong! Nor cast away
the crown that god has given thy soul to-day!
A. Procter
Suffering according to the will of God to be in the will of god is not a matter of intellectual discernment, but a state of heart. To a sanctified soul the will of god is its implicit life, as natural as breathing. It is the sick man who knows intellectually what health is, and a sinful man knows intellectually what the will of god is; but a sanctified heart is the expression of the will of god. Its motto is my father can do what he likes with me, he may bless me to death, or give me a bitter cup; i delight to do his will.
. . . As unto a faithful creator. The sovereignty of god is the greatest comfort to the saint. The soul of the sanctified saint is en rapport with god, he has no responsibility, he is without carefulness because his father cares, gods predestinations are that souls voluntary choosings. The pre-eminent mystery in this thought is the mystery of the nature of love: the saint knows, with a knowledge which passeth knowledge. This truth is never discerned by the powerful in intellect, but only by the pure in heart.
Therefore to whom turn i but to thee, the ineffable name?
Builder and maker, thou, of houses not made with hands!
What, have fear of change from thee who art ever the same?
Doubt that thy power can fill the heart that thy power expands?
There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;
the evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;
what was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more;
on the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.
All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist;
not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power
whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist
when eternity affirms the conception of an hour.
The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard,
the passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,
are music sent up to god by the lover and the bard;
enough that he heard it once: we shall hear it by-and-by.
Robert browning
This brings us to the grand finale of the discipline of suffering, viz. :
The sublimity of suffering
It is not possible to define life, or love, or suffering, for the words are but names for incalculable elements in human experience, the very essence of which is implicit, not explicit. To quote g. K. Chesterton again a critic
Who takes a scientific view of the book of job is exactly like a surgeon who should take a poetical view of appendicitis; he is simply an old muddler.
Suffering is grand when the heart is right with god. But for the night the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, would never be seen. And so god giveth to his own the treasures of darkness.
The sublimity of suffering can be indicated in three glorious outlines friendship with god, fellowship with Jesus, and freedom in the highest.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which i command you. . . . ( john 15:1314 RV)
The relationship of a soul to Jesus Christ is capable of being interpreted in varying ways, but our lord seems to imply that there is an end to discipleship, an end to learning the pace, and a point is reached where the disciple emerges as the friend of god, carrying with him the swinging stride of the mountains of god, and the atmosphere of the eternal hills. In such glimpses one recalls how in the dawnlight of the ages enoch walked with god, and so fascinating, so exhilarating, so entrancing, were those walks that one day he did not return and he was not; for god took him. Again, we read of Abraham, who has been known through all the ages as the friend of god, the father of all those who have become or will yet become the friends of god.
It is not possible to express what Jesus Christ has done for us in better words than those of the writer to the Hebrews for it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren . . . (hebrews 2:1011 rv). Oh, unspeakably blessed is the suffering of the sanctified that leads them step by step to this sublime friend- ship with God!
But whoso wants god only and lets life go, seeks him with sorrow and pursues him far, and finds him weeping, and in no long time again the high and unapproachable evanishing escapeth, and that man forgets the life and struggle of the soul, falls from his hope, and dreams it was a dream. Yet back again perforce with sorrow and shame the complete works of oswald chambers.
Who once hath known him must return, nor long can cease from loving, nor endures alone the dreadful interspace of dreams and day, once quick with god; nor is content as those who look into each others eyes and seek to find one strong enough to uphold the earth, or sweet enough to make it heaven: aha, whom seek they or whom find? For in all the world there is none but thee, my god, there is none but thee.
F. W. H. Myers
Lest you who are suffering under the call to supreme sanctification should faint or wail, you will presently hear him say, fear not, . . . I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Do you catch the majesty, the might, the awe, the unspeakable satisfac- tion of those words?
My goal is god himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but himself, my god:
Tis his to lead me there, not mine,
But his at any cost, dear lord, by any road.
F. Brook16
Oh, that men would not degrade and belittle what our lord jesus christ has done for us by morbid introspective sympathy with one another! How many of us can hear him say: these things have i spoken unto you in parables [mg]: the hour cometh, when i shall no more speak unto you in parables, but shall tell you plainly of the father. In that day ye shall ask in my name: and i say not unto you, that i will pray the father for you; for the father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that i came forth from the father ( john 16:2527 rv ) friendship with god is not a legal fiction; it is a reality in time. In thy presence is fulness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (psalm 16:11).
And all this is ours by the sheer might of the atonement of jesus, who gave himself for us to cleanse and recreate us, to baptise us with the holy spirit and fire, till looking at us as we tread this earth among the common round and tasks of men, jesus will see of the travail of his soul, and being satisfied, will say, father, this have i done; here is another soul. That soul incandescent with the holy spirit, walks and talks with god, as friend with friend, let- ting god do as he wills with him. This, and nothing less and nothing else, constitutes the suffering of the sanctified. Oh, the sublimity of the sufferings of the sanctified! Suffering according to the will of god, not so much for personal perfecting as to enable god to express his ideas in the life.
(b) fellowship with jesus
But if, impatient, thou let slip thy cross,
Thou wilt not find it in this world again,
Nor in another; here, and here alone
Is even thee to suffer for gods sake.
In other worlds we shall more perfectly
Serve him and love him, praise him, work for him,
Grow near and nearer him with all delight;
But then we shall not any more be called
To suffer, which is our appointment here
Couldst thou not suffer then one hour, or two
If he should call thee from thy cross to-day,
Saying, it is finished! That hard cross of thine
From which thou prayest for deliverance,
Thinkest thou not some passion of regret
Would overcome thee? Thou wouldst say,so soon?
Let me go back, and suffer yet awhile
More patiently; i have not yet praised god.
And he might answer to thee, never more.
All pain is done with. Whensoeer it comes,
That summons that we look for, it will seem
Soon, yea too soon. Let us take heed in time
That god may now be glorified in us;
And while we suffer, let us set our souls
To suffer perfectly: since this alone,
The suffering, which is this worlds special grace,
May here be perfected and left behind.
H. E. Hamilton
King the cross of jesus christ stands unique and alone. His cross is not our cross. Our cross is that we manifest before the world the fact that we are sancti- fied to do nothing but the will of god. By means of his cross, our cross becomes our divinely appointed privilege. It is necessary to emphasise this because there is so much right feeling and wrong teaching abroad on the subject. We are never called upon to carry christs cross: his cross is the centre of time and eternity; the answer to the enigmas of both.
For hereunto were ye called: because christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps (1 peter 2:21 rv ). This is the essence of fellowship with his sufferings. He suffered for you. Are you suffering on account of someone else, or for someone else? Are your agonis- ing prayers and suffering before the lord on behalf of that distressing case because it hurts you, dis- comforts you, makes you long for release? If so, you are not in fellowship with his suffering, nor anything like it. But if your soul, out of love for god, longs for others and bears with them in a voluntary, vicarious way, then you have a fellowship divine indeed.
When your work suffers eclipse do you wail before god because the work of your hands is ruined? Do you say, i looked upon this as my life- work, now it is broken and blighted and shattered? If so, you do not know what fellowship with his suf- fering means. But if, when you see men defiling the house of god, making his courts a place for traffic in worldly business, for engendering false affections, a home for vagrant beasts, you agonise before the lord with alternate zeal and tears, then you have fellowship with him in his sufferings. Now i rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of christ in my flesh for his bodys sake, which is the church (colossians 1:24 RV ).
For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ. (2 corinthians 1:5 RV)
That i may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death. (Philippians 3:10 RV )
This fellowship with his sufferings is a mystery only understood by the saint. But not all suffering leads to this sublime fellowship. To suffer from the hatred of men, to be separated from their company, to be reproached of men, to be considered as having an evil name, is not necessarily to have fellowship with his sufferings. We only have fellowship with him if we suffer for the son of mans sake. To suffer martyrdom, to lose your life, to leave father and mother, houses and lands, is not to have fellowship with his sufferings unless it is done because of him and for his sake.
This same thing thins the ranks of the suffering ones who claim fellowship with him, and it humbles us to the dust. To drink of his cup, to be baptised with his baptism, is a thing so rare that few of us ever see it, or enter into it. Have you begun the solitary way with him and has the clamour of father or mother made you quail? Or does love for them pale into insignificance before your love for him? Does wife arise, and with face and hands too tender, seek to prevent you from your course for him? Or does your love for him in that supreme moment rise so high that your love for her appears hatred in comparison? Have your childrens baby fingers bowed your head to earth again? Or has your love for him prevailed, and commending them, bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh, to god, have you gone forth? Have brothers and sisters scathed and scandalised you, shamed you by their just and righteous indignation? Or has love for him prevailed even over that? Has self-culture impeded your solitary way with him? Or has love for him been so passionate that you love not your own life? Then you have become a disciple of Jesus indeed.
All this is not yet fellowship with his sufferings; it is the first lesson learned towards that fellowship: if any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple (luke 14:26 rv ). Doth this cause you to stumble? . . . From that time [kjv] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, would ye also go away? ( john 6:61, 6667 rv ).
Oh, the sublimity of the suffering that gains us fellowship with jesus!
To abandon all, to strip ones self of all, in order to seek and follow jesus christ naked to bethle- hem, where he was born, naked to the hall where he was scourged, and naked to calvary where he died on the cross, is so great a mystery that neither the thing, nor the knowledge of it, is given to any but through faith in the son of god.
Wherever this finds you, my beloved sister or brother, can you hear, in imagination at least, our lord say to you at the last, knowing all, well done, good and faithful servant?
But if himself he come to thee, and stand
beside thee, gazing down on thee with eyes
that smile, and suffer; that will smite thy heart,
with their own pity, to a passionate peace;
and reach to thee himself the holy cup
(with all its wreathen stems of passion-flowers
and quivering sparkles of the ruby stars),
pallid and royal, saying, drink with me;
wilt thou refuse? Nay, not for paradise!
The pale brow will compel thee, the pure hands
will minister unto thee; thou shalt take
of that communion through the solemn depths
of the dark waters of thine agony,
with heart that praises him, that yearns to him
the closer through that hour. Hold fast his hand,
though the nails pierce thine too! Take only care
lest one drop of the sacramental wine
be spilled, of that which ever shall unite
thee, soul and body to thy living lord!
For the glory and the passion of this midnight
i praise thy name, i give thee thanks. O christ!
Thou that hast neither failed me nor forsaken,
through these hard hours with victory overpriced;
Now that i too of thy passion have partaken,
for the worlds sake called, elected, sacrificed.
Thou wast alone through thy redemption-vigil,
thy friends had fled;
the angel at the garden from thee parted,
and solitude instead more than the scourge,
or cross, o tender-hearted,
under the crown of thorns bowed down
thy head. But i, amid the torture, and the taunting,
i have had thee!
Thy hand was holding my hand fast and faster,
thy voice was close to me
and glorious eyes said, follow me,
thy master,
smile as i smile thy faithfulness to see.
H. E. Hamilton king
(c) freedom in the highest
freedom is that implicit life which fulfils all the law of god, and transfigures the fulfilment in loving devo- tion. Oh, the sublimity of that freedom in the high- est, wherein suffering has freed us from being the dupes of ourselves, of our convictions and our tem- peraments, and we realise that our fellowship is with the father, and with his son jesus christ. Let it be said with reverence, even with bated breath, and in the atmosphere of the deepest humility, that suffering according to the will of god raises us to a freedom and felicity in the highest that baffles all language to express. As ever, the only sufficient language is the language of scripture. If a man love me, he will keep my word; and my father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him ( john 14:23 rv). If any man hear my voice, and open the door, i will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (revelation 3:20). This is verily the apotheosis of freedom and felicity. This mirrors the incomprehensible mystery of the abiding of the trin- ity in every suffering soul raised to the sublimity of fellowship. If therefore the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed ( john 8:36 rv). I delighted and [rv mg] sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love (song of solomon 2:34). To day i must abide at thy house (luke 19:5). Do you know the unspeakable bliss of father, son, and holy spirit abiding with you, feasting with you, and making you one with them? This is the sublime height of suffering according to the will of god. Surely we gaze now at the mystery of godliness. No wonder angels desire to look into these things! A poor, evilly-disposed sinner, cleansed, saved, wholly sanctified, walking as the friend of god, in communion with the lord in suffering, and the trinity abiding with him as companions daily and hourly and momentarily. This truly is a height from which the soul can look into the depths of the pain that our saviour and sanctifier went through to bring us there. This gives us a key to understand the shame and agony, the mock trial, the crucifixion, the res- urrection, the ascension and pentecost.
There is a way for man to rise
to that sublime abode;
an offering and a sacrifice,
a holy spirits energies,
No wonder st. Paul prays . . . That the god of our lord jesus christ, the father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inher- itance in the saints (ephesians 1:1718 rv ).
This is the hope of his calling; we are part of the glory of his inheritance. This unveils to our hearts an under- standing of our lords great prayer . . . That they may be one, even as we are one. One in holiness, one in love, one for ever with god the father, god the son and god the holy ghost.
Servants of god! Or sons
shall i not call you? Because
not as servants ye knew
your fathers innermost mind,
his, who unwillingly sees
one of his little ones lost
yours is the praise, if mankind
hath not as yet in its march
fainted, and fallen, and died. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . Then, in such hour of need
of your fainting, dispirited race,
ye, like angels appear
radiant with ardour divine.
Beacons of hope, ye appear!
Languor is not in your heart,
weakness is not in your word,
weariness not on your brow.
We alight in our van! At your voice,
panic, despair, flee away.
Ye move through the ranks, recall
the stragglers, refresh the outworn,
praise, re-inspire the brave.
Order, courage, return;
eyes rekindling, and prayers,
follow your steps as ye go.
Ye fill up the gaps in our files,
strengthen the wavering line,
stablish, continue our march,
on, to the bound of the waste,
on, to the city of god.
Matthew arnold17
But, marvel of marvels, the outward and visible sign of the sublimity of friendship and fellowship and freedom in the highest is in being the humblest servant of allhave this mind in you, which was also in christ jesus: who, being in the form of god, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with god, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men . . . (philippians 2:57 rv). By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples . . . ( john 13:35).
It is a strange thing, a unique thing, that in this hierarchy of suffering, those nearest the throne are willingly, eagerly, the humblest; and the king him- self is servant of all. But i am in the midst of you as he that serveth (luke 22:27 rv ). Its way of suffering is the witness which a soul bears to itself (amiel).18
The production of a saint is the grandest thing earth can give to heaven. A saint is not a person with a saintly character: a saint is a saintly character. Char- acter, not ecstatic moods, is the stuff of saintliness. A saint is a living epistle written by the finger of god, known and read of all men. A saint may be any man, any wastrel or vagabond, who discovering himself at calvary, with the nature of sin uncloaked to him, lies in despair; then discerning jesus christ as the substi- tute for sin and rising in the glamour of amazement, he cries outjesus, i should be there. And to his astonished spirit, he receives justification from all his sinfulness by that wondrous atonement. Then, standing in that great light, and placing his hands, as it were, over his saviours crucified hands, his feet over his crucified feet, he crucifies for ever his right to himself, and the baptises him with the holy ghost and fire, substituting in him a new principle of life, an identity of holiness with himself, until he bears unmistakably a family likeness to jesus christ.
God, who at sundry times in manners many
spake to the fathers and is speaking still,
eager to find if ever or if any
souls will obey and hearken to his will;
who that one moment has the least descried him,
dimly and faintly, hidden and afar,
doth not despise all excellence beside him.
Pleasures and powers that are not and that are,
ay amid all men bear himself thereafter
smit with a solemn and a sweet surprise,
dumb to their scorn and turning on their laughter
only the dominance of earnest eyes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . This hath he done and shall we not adore him?
This shall he do and can we still despair?
Come let us quickly fling ourselves before him,
cast at his feet the burthen of our care,
flash from our eyes the glow of our
thanksgiving,
glad and regretful, confident and calm,
then thro all life and what is after living
thrill to the tireless music of a psalm.
Yea thro life, death, thro sorrow and thro sinning
he shall suffice me, for he hath sufficed:
christ is the end, for christ was the beginning,
christ the beginning, for the end is christ.
F. W. H. Myers