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I am a very dull scholar in Christ's school

(Excerpts from the letters of William Tiptaft)

"It was good for me to be afflicted." Psalm 119:71

My dear brother,
I find this sickness profitable to my soul. It
has, I trust, meekened and humbled my spirit,
and I have been brought down to lie passive in
the Lord's hands. I deserve many such, and much
more severe chastisements for my daily sins and
iniquities.

I feel this sickness to be a rod that I needed.

If we escaped such trials, we would wander
farther from God after idols and the vain
delights of our wicked hearts.

What trials, afflictions, and sorrows are
required to separate us from the world!

How hard, carnal, and selfish does a man
become, who has nothing to soften him!

We need daily crosses and daily trials to
keep us in any way alive to eternal things,
and to maintain a spirit of prayer and
watchfulness.

I trust I can say that my sickness has proved
profitable to me; but I am a very dull scholar
in Christ's school, and need line upon line and
precept upon precept.

I have to lament a heart full of wickedness,
vanity, and folly.

I feel a strong inclination to avoid every cross.
But I am sure, nevertheless, that crosses are
daily needful.

How we cleave to the world!

What pride, vanity, flesh-pleasing, and
worldly conformity are manifest in us!

"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but
 now I obey Your word." Psalm 119:67

Yours affectionately and sincerely,
William Tiptaft

Afflictions

(J. A. James, "The Practical Believer Delineated")
       
Glance at the good which afflictions are calculated to effect,
and do effect in all cases where they are sanctified. As the
bee sucks honey from many a bitter herb--so faith extracts
good from bitter sorrows!

How sorrows crucify him to the world--and the world to
him; sometimes gently drawing him away from the world
--at others forcing him out as by a violent wrench!

How trials mortify his pride and cure his vanity!

How afflictions restore him from his backslidings and bring
him again to God from whom he has departed. How they
revive his lukewarm religion and quicken him in prayer. How
they make him feel that religion is after all his great concern.

Yes, there is more learned sometimes in one great affliction,
than from a thousand sermons, or a library of books!

Afflictions

(Joseph Williams)

"It was good for me to be afflicted!" Psalm 119:71

I find afflictions to be good for me. I have always
found them so. Afflictions are happy means in the
hands of the Holy Spirit to subdue . . .
  my corruptions,
  my pride,
  my evil passions,
  my inordinate love to the creature.

Afflictions . . .
  soften my hard heart,
  bring me to my knees,
  increase faith,
  increase love,
  increase humility,
  increase self-denial.

Afflictions make me poor in spirit,
and nothing in my own eyes.

Welcome the cross!

Welcome deep adversity!

Welcome stripping Providences!

"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but
 now I obey Your word." Psalm 119:67

Every bitter cup

(Newman Hall, "Leaves of Healing
from the Garden of Grief"  1891)

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble,
 and I will deliver you." Psalm 50:15

If God is willing to help us, who can stay His hand?
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain
and hill be made low. Fountains shall spring up in
the wilderness, and a path be opened through the
great waters. In His hands are the hearts of all men.
He can thwart the malice of foes, or make our enemies
to be at peace with us. He who rescued Israel from
Egypt, and Jerusalem from Sennacherib, and Daniel
from the lions, is still as able to remove from His
children every bitter cup--or give them grace to
drink it.

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble,
 and I will deliver you." Psalm 50:15

A languishing body

(Letters of J. C. Philpot)

(February 1, 1840, to a dying youth)

My dear friend,
A languishing body is a heavy cross.
Sickness often . . .
  depresses our spirits,
  shatters our nerves, and
  casts a gloom over our minds.

But it is good thus to be weaned and detached,
and gradually loosened from the strong ties that
bind us to earth. I was ill once for many months,
and many thought I would never recover. I found
it a heavy trial, but I believe it was profitable to
my soul. May the Lord make all your bed in your
sickness, give you many testimonies of His special
favor--and when He sees fit to take down your
earthly tabernacle, remove you to that happy
country where the inhabitant shall never say,
"I am sick," where tears are wiped away from
all faces, and sorrow and sighing flee away.

May the Lord speedily grant your desires, and
visit your soul with looks of love, rays of mercy,
and beams of tender kindness, so as to smile
you into . . .
  humility,
  resignation,
  patience,
  gratitude,
  contrition,
  love, and
  godly sorrow.

Yours affectionately in the bonds of the gospel,
J. C. Philpot

Your burden

(Octavius Winslow, "Daily Need Divinely Supplied")

"Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall
 sustain you." Psalm 55:22

Wonderful words! Their sense is magical—their
sound is music—their very utterance is repose!

It is one of those flowers culled from the Lord's
garden—penciled with beauty and laden with
perfume, which defies all human art to heighten
the loveliness of the one, or to increase the
sweetness of the other.

And yet, as most flowers are more fragrant when
crushed, and as the grape yields its sweetest
juice when pressed—a simple exposition of these
precious words, however gentle the pressure, may
prove a spiritual fragrance and refreshment to some
burdened child of God.

O my soul, what is your burden? Remember the
invitation is a personal one, and therefore includes
every care and need, sin and sorrow, that you have.
"Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain
you."

Whatever your burden, cast it in the prayer of faith
on the Lord. Peculiar and heavy though it may be,
His strength and grace and love will sustain you.

Encircled by His almighty arm,
upheld by His promises,
strengthened by His grace,
soothed by His sympathy,
comforted by His Spirit,
you shall not sink, for it is written, "Cast your
burden upon the Lord, and He shall  sustain you."

Drinking bitter cups?

"We know that all things work together for good."
  Romans 8:28

(Octavius Winslow, "Morning Thoughts")

All things under the government of an infinitely
great, all wise, righteous, and beneficent God,
work together for good.

What that good may be, the shape it may
assume, the complexion it may wear, the end
to which it may be subservient, we cannot tell.

To our dim view it may appear an evil, but
to God's far seeing eye it is a positive good.

His glory is secured by it, and that end
accomplished, we are sure it must be good.

Oh truth most divine!

Oh words most consolatory!

How many whose eye traces this page, it may
be whose tears bedew it, whose sighs breathe
over it, whose prayers hallow it, may be wading
in deep waters, may be drinking bitter cups,
and are ready to exclaim, "All these things are
against me!"

Oh no, beloved of God, all these things are for you!

"The Lord sits upon the flood."

"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters."

"He makes the clouds His chariot."

Be not then afraid.

Calmly stay your faith on this divinely assured
truth, that "all things work together for good to
those who love God."

Will it not be a good, if your present adversity results...
  in the dethronement of some worshiped idol;
  in the endearing of Christ to your soul;
  in the closer conformity of your mind to God's image;
  in the purification of your heart;
  in your more thorough fitness for heaven;
  in a revival of God's work within you;
  in stirring you up to more prayer?

Oh yes! good, real good, permanent good must result
from all the Divine dispensations in your history.

Bitter repentance shall end in the experienced sweetness of
Christ's love.

The festering wound shall but elicit the healing balm.

The overpowering burden shall but bring you to the tranquil rest.

The storm shall but quicken your footsteps to the 'hiding place'.

In a little while, oh, how soon! you shall pass away
from earth to heaven, and in its clearer, serener light
shall read the truth, often read with tears before,
"All things work together for good to those who love God."