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What benefits affliction can confer on the soul. We read, that anxiety about a son led the nobleman to Christ, in order to obtain help in time of need. Once brought into Christ’s company, he learned a lesson of priceless value. In the end, “he believed, and his whole house.” All this, be it remembered, hinged upon the son’s sickness. If the nobleman’s son had never been ill, his father might have lived and died in his sins. Affliction is one of God’s medicines. By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. By it He often draws souls away from sin and the world, which would otherwise have perished everlastingly. Health is a great blessing, but sanctified disease is a greater. Prosperity and worldly comfort, are what all naturally desire; but losses and crosses are far better for us, if they lead us to Christ. Thousands at the last day, will testify with David, and the nobleman before us, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” (Psa. 119:71.) Let us beware of murmuring in the time of trouble. Let us settle it firmly in our minds, that there is a meaning, a needs be, and a message from God, in every sorrow that falls upon us. There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction. There is no commentary that opens up the Bible so much as sickness and sorrow. “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit.” (Heb. 12:11.) The resurrection morning will prove, that many of the losses of God’s people were in reality eternal gains.

The rich have afflictions as well as the poor. We read of a nobleman in deep anxiety because his son was sick. We need not doubt that every means of restoration was used that money could procure. But money is not almighty. The sickness increased, and the nobleman’s son lay at the point of death. The lesson is one which needs to be constantly impressed on the minds of men. There is no more common, or more mischievous error, than to suppose that the rich have no cares. The rich are as liable to sickness as the poor; and have a hundred anxieties beside, of which the poor know nothing at all. Silks and satins often cover very heavy hearts. The dwellers in palaces often sleep more uneasily than the dwellers in cottages. Gold and silver can lift no man beyond the reach of trouble. They may shut out debt and rags, but they cannot shut out care, disease, and death. The higher the tree, the more it is shaken by storms. The broader its branches, the greater is the mark which it exposes to the tempest. David was a happier man when he kept his father’s sheep at Bethlehem, than when he dwelt as a king at Jerusalem, and governed the twelve tribes of Israel. Let the servant of Christ beware of desiring riches. They are certain cares, and uncertain comforts. Let him pray for the rich, and not envy them. How hardly shall a rich man enter the kingdom of God! Above all, let him learn to be content with such things as he has. He only is truly rich, who has treasure in heaven.

Man is born to trouble: and it is of the greatest importance to him that he should know where to turn his eyes in the day of adversity. The Gospel directs us to a reconciled God in Christ Jesus, who has engaged to be our support and comfort under every distress. The Christian has many trials peculiar to himself: but the Gospel is fully adequate to his necessities. Its power to support him may be seen in the passage before us. St. Paul is exhorting Timothy to steadfastness in the cause of Christ: and, for his encouragement, he tells him what was the ground of his own consolations under the heavy afflictions which he was now enduring for the sake of Christ. He tells him, that, notwithstanding he was immured in a dungeon, and in daily expectation of a violent and cruel death, he was neither ‘ashamed’ nor afraid: for that he had a firm persuasion of God’s ability to keep him; and that persuasion afforded him ample support.

Sickness and death come to the young as well as to the old. We read of a son sick unto death, and a father in trouble about him. We see the natural order of things inverted. The elder is obliged to minister to the younger, and not the younger to the elder. The child draws nigh to the grave before the parent, and not the parent before the child. The lesson is one which we are all slow to learn. We are apt to shut our eyes to plain facts, and to speak and act, as it young people, as a matter of course, never died when young. And yet the grave-stones in every churchyard would tell us, that few people out of a hundred ever live to be fifty years old, while many never grow up to man’s estate at all. The first grave that ever was dug on this earth, was that of a young man. The first person who ever died, was not a father but a son. Aaron lost two sons at a stroke. David, the man after God’s own heart, lived long enough to see three children buried. Job was deprived of all his children in one day. These things were carefully recorded for our learning. He that is wise, will never reckon confidently on long life. We never know what a day may bring forth. The strongest and fairest are often cut down and hurried away in a few hours, while the old and feeble linger on for many years. The only true wisdom is to be always prepared to meet God, to put nothing off which concerns eternity, and to live like men ready to depart at any moment. So living, it matters little whether we die young or old. Joined to the Lord Jesus, we are safe in any event.

Verse 1

Oh, weary pilgrim, lift your head,
For joy cometh in the morning;
For God, in his own Word, hath said
That joy cometh in the morning.

Refrain

Joy cometh in the morning,
Joy cometh in the morning;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 2

Ye trembling saints, dismiss your fears,
For joy cometh in the morning;
Oh, weeping mourner, dry your tears,
For joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 3

Let ev’ry burdened soul look up,
For joy cometh in the morning;
And ev’ry trembling sinner hope,
For joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 4

Our God shall wipe all tears away,
For joy cometh in the morning;
Sorrow and sighing flee away,
For joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 1

He knows the bitter, weary way,
The endless striving day by day,
The souls that weep, the souls that pray--
He knows it all.

Refrain

He knows it all,
The bitter, weary way;
O souls that weep, O souls that pray,
He knows it all.

Verse 2

He knows how hard the fight has been,
The clouds that come our lives between,
The wounds the world has never seen--
He knows it all.

Verse 3

He knows, when, faint and worn, we sink,
How deep the pain, how near the brink
Of dark despair we pause and shrink--
He knows it all.

Verse 4

He knows! oh, thought so full of bliss!
For though on earth our joys we miss.
We still can bear it, feeling this--
He knows it all.

Verse 1

Cast thy burden on the Lord,
And he will sustain thee, and strengthen thee, and comfort thee;
He will sustain thee, and comfort thee;
He will sustain thee, he will comfort thee;
Cast thy burden on the Lord!

Verse 1

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on,
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead thou me on;
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

Verse 2

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead thou me on;
I loved the garish day, and spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years.

Verse 3

So long thy pow’r has blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on;
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Verse 1

Oh, weary pilgrim, lift your head,
For joy cometh in the morning;
For God, in his own Word, hath said
That joy cometh in the morning.

Refrain

Joy cometh in the morning,
Joy cometh in the morning;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 2

Ye trembling saints, dismiss your fears,
For joy cometh in the morning;
Oh, weeping mourner, dry your tears,
For joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 3

Let ev’ry burdened soul look up,
For joy cometh in the morning;
And ev’ry trembling sinner hope,
For joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 4

Our God shall wipe all tears away,
For joy cometh in the morning;
Sorrow and sighing flee away,
For joy cometh in the morning.

Verse 1

How tender is thy hand,
Oh, thou beloved Lord!
Afflictions come at thy command,
And leave us at thy word.

Verse 2

How gentle was the rod
That chastened us for sin!
How soon we found a smiling God,
Where deep distress had been!

Verse 3

A Father’s hand we felt,
A Father’s heart we knew;
With tears of penitence we knelt,
And found his word was true.

Verse 4

We told him all our grief,
We thought of Jesus’ love;
A sense of pardon brought relief,
And bade our pains remove.