The Sublime In Suffering(extracted From The Knowledge Of God)

by Schofield, A. T. | Category: General | Jul 1972

Rejoicing in tribulation (Rom. 5:3).

True Christians, it seems to me, are of three qualities, which are revealed by the different ways in which tribulations are borne.

The first seem to be made of lead: they murmur and repine and find fault with God in trial, even if they do not lose their trust in Him altogether.

The second are as silver: in tribulation they may show patience and resignation, giving no utterance to impatient or rebellious thoughts though often sorely tried, and tempted to do so.

The third come forth as gold: they rejoice so truly and unaffectedly in their tribulation that friends who come to pity stay to learn their secret.

I have seen those golden ones in trial; and all I can say as a matter of sober personal experience is that they represent, wholly unconsciously-the sublime in suffering. One or two things strike me about them. There is a marked absence of current pious expressions common to tried Christians. There is a naturalness and a simplicity and a clearly unaffected and unforced joyfulness that to an ordinary man would certainly seem out of place. You go to see them as sufferers, as I have said, prepared to condole with them, to exhort them to a perfect trust, and to try to cheer them; and before you have been with them five minutes you are dumb, and know not what to say, and hardly what to think, for you are certainly face to face with a miracle. You see before you the finger of God; with them you are consciously in His presence, and you discern in these sufferers a faith that removes mountains, and calls things that are not as though they were. Your little words of sympathy die on your lips in the presence of the great joy before you.

It is marvellous, but so simple! Just as a tiny carbon filament, smaller than a hair, can flood a room with incandescent light when in touch with the storage battery, so does the feeblest and least-taught Christian, when n touch with God, illumine all around.

Schofield, A. T. | Jul 1972
General