No, suffering is a vital part and condition of life, and from the right use of it we gather strength and grow beautiful in moral and spiritual stature, while we gain the only happiness that maintains and has power to bless mankind, happiness which is the child of conscious strength acquired on the battlefield of conflict and in the vale of tears. How then are you going to use the sorrows, the afflictions, the disappointments and the trials that must come inevitably into your life? The late Maltby Babcock has a fine passage in this connection: “Byron eagerly coveted a place among the immortals, yet accepted his club feet with cursings and bitterness; while St. Paul accepted his ‘thorn in the flesh’ with sweetness and was thereby exalted and transfigured. The poet wishes to become a hero for the public while privately tasting of the sweets of profligacy. Sinning against his finer feelings his art steadily declines, until at thirty-five it has passed into the sear and yellow leaf.” Let us strive to emulate the example of St. Paul, and when having no power to expel from our life that which brings pain and suffering, let us endeavor to accept such sorrow as an opportunity to develop character, and thereby be exalted and made strong, remembering always that since “The Man of Sorrows” hung upon the cross, transfigured sorrow is that which has blessed humanity most, and brought men nearest to the heart and mind of the Master. And train yourself to believe that.
“Sometime, when all life’s lessons have been learned,
And sun and stars forevermore have set,
The things which one weak judgment here has spurned,
The things o’er which we grieved, with lashes wet,
Will flash before us out of life’s dark night,
As stars shine best in deepest tints of blue;
And we shall see how all God’s plans were right,
And that which seemed reproof was love most true.”