'Voices From The Past' Vol. 1 — May 24

We are great strangers to the cross. When it comes to pass we either despise the discipline of the Lord, or else we faint by it. If affliction is moderate we are apt to despise it, but if the rod fetches blood, presently it is intolerable, and we begin to faint, and cry out in our passion, 'Was ever sorrow like my sorrow?' Sufferings have obtained an ill name in the world, but God's rod and love may stand together. God teaches his people in afflictions. He teaches us to feel compassion toward others who are suffering. We are prone to be insensitive toward others who are suffering when we are at ease in Zion. He also teaches us to prize our outward mercies and comforts more, and yet to dote upon them less. We are to be more thankful for them, but less ensnared by them. Next, God teaches us self-denial and obedient submission to his will. In our prosperity we are full of our own wills, and usually give God counsel as if we could tell God how it might have been better. We dispute our cross, when we should take it up. By bearing a little we learn to bear more. The bullock unaccustomed to the yoke is impatient. After he is accustomed to labour, he willingly puts his neck under the yoke. God works out by degrees the delicate spirit we learned in our prosperity. One way or another, God works his children into a sweet, obedient frame. At length, God brings his children to subscribe: ‘What God wills, when God wills, how God wills; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Finally, we can learn humility and meekness of spirit. Pride naturally runs in our veins, and it is nourished by ease and prosperity. By trouble we come to know our own heart. God seeks to develop meekness in his people by affliction, then save them from affliction.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Devotional Readings 'Voices From The Past Vol.1.'
Thomas Case, Select Works, A Treatise of Afflictions, pp. 5-27
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