01.03. EXAMPLES OF GREAT SUFFERERS
Someone has said that the lives of very bad men and of very godly men are the most instructive—the former warning us and putting us on our guard, and the latter encouraging us to imitate their example. Inspired men seem to have thought the same thing—at least, the Scriptures seldom delineate an average person—but they speak freely of Cain and Abel, of Moses and Pharaoh, of David and Saul, of Apollos and Simon Magus. In like manner, they give us striking examples of great sufferings. We might dwell at length on the afflictions of Christ, for He was the greatest sufferer—preeminently "the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." But His cup contained in it the wine of the wrath of God for our sins imputed to Him. The sword of Jehovah awaked against His fellow and smote Him. He bore the sin of many, and "our sufferings do not deserve to be spoken of on the same day on which we speak of His sorrows." A lengthened account of the afflictions of Job, of David, of Jeremiah, and of Paul might very pertinently here be given; but the reader is probably quite familiar with their history—at least, he can soon read it in the Scriptures. These men were illustrious examples of what divine grace can do in sustaining God’s chosen, and in giving them a blessed victory. No chapter of human history is more instructive and inspiriting than the history of the glorious martyrs who have suffered cruel deaths for their unswerving adherence to the cause of Christ. When Paul would sum up the grand achievements of holy confidence in God through Christ, he speaks of those "who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground." Hebrews 11:33-38
Glory be to God for giving us such examples of heroic and triumphant sufferings. No trial is likely to come on any child of God in our day except such as the saints have already triumphed over.
I think it is Henry Kirke White who says that "there are sorrows and there are misfortunes which bow down the spirit beyond the aid of all human comforts. . . . There are afflictions, there are privations, where death and hopes irrecoverably blasted leave no prospect of retrieval." In such cases, dry sorrow drinks up the blood and spirits, and would utterly consume us but for the amazing interpositions of divine mercy. But God is the God of all comfort, and He can make all grace abound to us.
I once heard an eloquent discourse on the power of divine grace to sustain and comfort in great affliction. The preacher has been for years very favorably known on both sides of the Atlantic. He still lives to love and be loved by thousands. He illustrated his subject by the recital of some incidents in the life of one whom he had personally known. His statement was substantially as follows:
While I was a student at Hampden Sidney College, there was a young man in the county of Prince Edward who was afflicted with one of the most painful of all the diseases to which the human frame is liable. It was a spinal infection of the most aggravated character. Being entirely dependent on others for support, it became necessary to make some permanent arrangement which would secure for him the constant attention he required. Through the intervention of some benevolent people connected with the institution, he was transferred to one of the rooms of Union Theological Seminary, and an arrangement was made by which the students of the Seminary, in turn, waited on him, day and night. After he was transferred to their care, I often visited him, and had abundant opportunity of knowing what he suffered and how he bore the painful visitation to which he was subjected. So contorted was he by his malady that he could not lie in a horizontal position, but was propped up by pillows placed under his head and shoulders; and he was so bent that usually his chin rested on his bosom. At times, it gave him acute pain to partake of his necessary food. In some way the optic nerve was implicated, and so keenly sensitive did he become to the light that it was necessary to exclude it, as far as possible, from his room. A close curtain was drawn across the single window behind his bed, and by night a shaded lamp was all that was permitted in his room. As an additional precaution, he often wore a bandage over his eyes, lest an accidental ray should pierce him with new anguish. And yet, amidst all these complicated and bodily distresses, such was his patience and serenity of spirit, so hopeful and even cheerful was he in the tone of his conversation, so quick was his sympathy in all that concerned others, that his room, so far from being a place of gloom or in any way repellent, was an attractive resort to the students of the Seminary and to his friends in the neighboring college. He never murmured, but he often gave thanks. Though it gave him pain to partake of his daily food, yet heavenly manna brought strength and refreshment to his trustful spirit. For long years no sight of green fields or blue sky greeted his shaded eyes, but visions of beauty, infinitely transcending the fairest of earthly prospects, were disclosed to the eye of faith.
Thus racked and consumed with bodily pains, and thus replenished and comforted by divine grace, he lingered on, until at a late hour one night, while absorbed in study, I was stopped by hearing the tolling of the bell, which announced that his weary, worn and emaciated body was at rest, and that his patient, unmurmuring spirit was among the just made perfect. The preacher added: "We hear of those who say they would dispense with religion during life, if they could be sure of its supports in a dying hour; but I ask, What would have been the condition of this man, during these long years of pain and destitution, but for the supports and consolations of the gospel of Christ?"
Now, dear reader, when you are inclined to think yourself the greatest of sufferers remember this young man, or one of old who cried: "Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow?"