Everyone recognizes the necessity for discipline—except perhaps for himself—in order to mature character and correct faults. “If folly were a pain,” says the Spanish proverb, “there would be shrieking all over the world": it seems ingrained in human nature, and in the servants of God not less than others; and it is because He is their Father that God chastens His children; not because He dislikes them, but because He loves them; not to injure us, but “for our profit.” All the world knows how great a benefit suffering may be: “He who harasses one teaches him strength,” says the African: Crescit sub ponders virtus, virtue flourishes under adversity, says the classic, alluding to the palm being more fruitful when hung with weights. Sechele, chief of the Bakwains, said to Livingstone that he thought his subjects would all become good Christians when they had been well beaten. Another proverb from the savage tribes is, “The sword does not know the head of him that made it:” if it did, it would understand the reason of all the terrible blows with which he smites it; it glows with burning indignation as he puts it into the fire, it clamors mightily when he hammers it, it hisses a bitter disapproval when he plunges it into the chilling flood, it shrieks over the grindstone. But its maker knows what he is doing all the time: it cannot do its work without all this rough dealing; nor will he strike it one needless blow. Behold it at last keen, strong, symmetrical, glittering and tempered as Excalibur or Balmung. “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
Of course all suffering is not sent in the way of chastisement for faults: much of it may be as persecution for Christ's sake or righteousness' sake, and to be welcomed as a high honor; much of it may be of the ordinary casualties of life, incident to all, but “to them that are exercised thereby” all kinds of tribulation work, patience, experience, hope. The word tribulation is itself taken from the tribulum, the little instrument which separated the corn from the chaff; and this is the effect discipline will have on the devout mind. “Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant where they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue."
In the old parable of “The Hermit “ we find that reverend man troubled as to how it is “That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey. This sprung some doubt of Providence's sway.” Whereon he goes forth to explore the world, and “clear this doubt,” but he only sees things that trouble him more than over. He is met by a youth of attractive mien, who accompanies him. They are first sheltered by a very rich man, who bountifully welcomes them: next morning they go forth again, and the youth steals a golden goblet—a poor return for such generosity, thinks the hermit. The following night they are received by a churlish man; but “half he welcomes in the shivering pair,” giving them “coarse bread and meager wine.” So far from robbing this man, however, the eccentric youth presents him with the goblet! They next are cordially welcomed by a host who has a truly devout and noble mind. Here the hermit is horrified by seeing his fellow-traveler creep over to the cradle and strangle the good man's babe; and, finally, a servant being sent to guide them by the host, who knows not yet of his frightful bereavement), the young man throws him into the river and drowns him!
The hermit can bear it no longer (we are apt to be somewhat surprised that he has borne it quite so long). He, flaming with indignation, “madly cries, Detested wretch!—but scarce his speech began, when the strange partner seemed no longer man! His youthful face grew more scarcely sweet; His robe turned white and flowered upon his feet Celestial odors breathe through purpled air.” In short he assumes angelic guise and explains “the truth of government divine” to be “The Maker justly claims the world He made” —that in the first place He must be allowed to do as He likes with His own. But there were hidden reasons for all these strange proceedings. “And where you can't unriddle, learn to trust.” The first host they went to was a “great vain man, who fared on costly food, Whose life was too luxurious to be good “: he used to force his guests to morning drafts of wine, but now is rebuked by having his goblet, abstracted. The second host was mean and suspicious; but he had relaxed with unwonted generosity on this occasion, and so he was given the goblet to encourage him. The third host was really excellent, and devout, “But now the child half weaned his heart from God “; so it was better for both that the child should be taken from his ruinously fond care. As for the old servant, he had designed to rob his master that night, and it was to save him from a second blow that such vigorous means were taken to prevent it.
Now, this parable is not meant to represent any complete view of methods of divine government: it is neither meant to imply that these things always go contrary to what we should expect, nor that everything is judged according to its merits in this life. But what it does is to illustrate in a singularly picturesque way the difficulties of our, judging of God’s dealings by mere outward events, “And where you can't unriddle, learn to trust.” —As another wrote, who had just been overshadowed by one of the most dreadful of human infirmities, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform......Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him.....Blind unbelief is sure to err......God is His own interpreter.” In Mincing Lane some of the foreign produce is sold “with all faults,” because of its being in a generally defective and damaged condition. These goods used to be (more formerly than at present) “fired” or “refired,” subjected to the action of great heat, with the result of very remarkable improvement. It is not the best kind of buying, to purchase things “with all faults;” for however badly they turn out, the purchaser has to put up with his bargain. That is, however, how sinners have been bought, and that is how they often have to pass through the furnace of tribulation. Do we not see the whole process when the coal, black and misshapen, is dragged from the depths of earthly darkness, is brought out into the light, is cast into the fiery gas-making retorts, whence it travels through the manifold tribulations of “ascension and dip pipes,” “condenser,” “exhauster” (suggestive names), through the tearing of the “scrubber,” the chilling of the “washer,” the cleansing of the “purifier,” till at last, having gone through a tomb-like “station meter,” it comes under the operation of the “governor,” and behold it then! no longer a black, inert, shapeless mass, but a bright and living flame, to lighten the city's darkness, to illume the palace's banquet hall! How many a black and dead sinner is thus dug up, and thus by fire and water, by death and resurrection, transformed to a burning and shining light in the Lord. “Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
But the effect of fire differs with differing natures; it melts the snow which comes from the skies, but it hardens the mud that comes from the earth: there is the “godly sorrow,” that leadeth heavenwards, and there is “the sorrow of the world,” [that] “worketh death.” David in sorrow goes to the Lord; Saul goes to the witch: and there is no greater outward test of whether there be divine life in anyone, than in the result of the action of these fires. Like Shadrach and his companions, Jacob had One like unto the Son of God walking with him, albeit, it seemed as if his companions were only Sorrow and Fear, and so the fire consumed but his fetters and his enemies. The latter part of his troubled life was illumined with a holy light, and dignified with the ineffable calm of a sublime confidence. His dim eyes pierced through many a coming century, and discerned in the darkness a radiant gleaming of the coruscation of divine splendor that shines from Shiloh's celestial crown.