Unsanctified Suffering.
viii. 21, and ix. 13. And they shall pass through it, &c.
I. Sin leads to suffering. 1. This is true of individuals (H. E. I. 4603–4612). But because there is another life and a future retribution, the full results of sin are frequently not seen in this life. Nay, the sinner often appears prosperous, even to the end (Ps. lxxiii. 3–5). 2. But in the case of nations, which as such have no immortality, it is otherwise (P. D. 2544); it is more prompt; it is often exceedingly terrible. This fact should make those who have any love for their children hostile to any national policy that is unrighteous, however politically “expedient” it may seem. II. There is in suffering no sanctifying power. God may use it as a means of arresting the careless, or of making good men better, but there is in it no certain reformative energy. On the contrary it may harden men in iniquity.[1] III. Suffering does nothing in itself to abate God’s anger against sinners. We, when we are wronged, often yield to a passion of vindictiveness, which is sated when we have succeeded in inflicting a certain amount of pain on the wrong-doer. But God’s anger is not vindictive, but righteous (H. E. I. 2288–2294); hence its terribleness. As it does not thirst for suffering, it is not satisfied by suffering. As long as the sinner holds to his sin, God’s anger will burn against him, irrespective altogether of the suffering he may have endured. Nothing will turn away that anger but a genuine repentance (ix. 13).
1. In the hour of temptation, let us think of sin not as it then presents itself to us, but as it will certainly appear to us when its results are manifested (H. E. I. 4673–4676). 2. When suffering has come upon us, let us regard it as God’s summons to repentance (H. E. I. 56–59); and let us obey it with thankfulness that God is willing to deal with us in the way of mercy.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See outline: [Moral Obduracy,] p. 16.