What They Said

“We, for whose comfort Job's experience was written, know how it was that the patriarch was afflicted, and have seen the end of the Lord.  There was a purpose to be fulfilled,—an end to be brought about.  We learn that howsoever mysterious our sufferings may be, they are not sent without a wise and loving purpose.  Mysterious, but not purposeless: our own is the fault if they are profitless; for the issue of the believer's affliction,—the end of the Lord,— is the humility and confidence of patience. Yes! rich in truest blessings is submission to God's will. We count them happy which endure.

Oh, that I may feel the happiness of endurance,—the peace of waiting patiently under the rod of correction!  Oh, for faith to realize that sickness comes to me in mercy!  I desire to feel that I am being chastened,—and chastened in tender love.  So may my own soul prove, realize in experience, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.”

Walter Purton