CHAPTER I. GOD'S PURPOSE IN SENDING SICKNESS. you THE Writer of this Book feels for in your present affliction, and desires to do you some good. Dear Brother or Sister, I am come into your sick-room, as it were, and wish to tell you a few things for your comfort and profit. God has seen fit to stop you in the midst of your busy life, and to lay you aside for a while. It is not by chance that His afflicting hand has fallen upon you. It is not at haphazard that He has chastened you. It may seem to be a mere accident that you are afflicted, and not another. But no; God has done it purposely. B "Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground." "As a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." Not a sparrow even falls to the ground without our heavenly Father's ordering, and He prizes us more than many sparrows. Learn this then-that your present Sickness or Misfortune is of God. It is His doing. He it is, who has brought this present chastisement upon you. And what are God's reasons for afflicting us? Is it to punish? Sometimes it is; but not, I think usually. "I have seen the wicked (says David) in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree". prosperous and happy. And, on the other hand, do we not constantly see the righteous suffering under the heavy hand of God? Do not take, then, so sad and gloomy a view of affliction as this. There must be another and truer reason why the Lord chastens. It is because He desires to do you some great good. The Gardener cuts and prunes his tree, to make it grow better, and bear more precious fruit; and God often uses His sharp knife for some gracious purpose. The wise and loving Father thwarts his child, and sometimes scourges it, for its good: and God uses His chastening rod for the very same reason. skilful Physician, again, prescribes nauseous medicines to restore his patient's health: and God bids us take His medicines, though at the time they are very distasteful to us. The Now, the Gardener, and the Parent, and the Physician all wish to do good, either to the plant, or the child, or the patient. And so, depend upon it, God wishes to do us good. This is the great object of His correctionsto do us good in our latter end. Here then is an answer to the question, Why does God afflict us? Because He loves us, and wishes to make us holy as He is holy, and happy as He is happy. For, as it has been well said, 66 make golden Christians." Fiery trials It is most important to feel this— My God loves me, and therefore He afflicts me. If you can but realize this, it will turn your present chastisement into a blessing, and your sick-room into a little paradise! And remember, I am not going one step beyond Scripture; for is it not written there, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten"; and again, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he |