AFFLICTION

AFFLICTION.

Affliction is a school of virtue: it corrects

levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning.—

Atterbury.

The truth is, when we are under any affliction, we are generally troubled with a malicious kind of melancholy; we only dwell and pore upon the sad and dark occurrences of Providence, but never take notice of the more benign and bright ones. Our way in this world is like a walk under a row of trees, checkered with light and shade; and because we cannot all along walk in the sunshine, we therefore perversely fix only U]Kin the' darker passages, and so lose all the comfort of our comforts. We are like froward children who, if you take one of their playthings from them, throw away all the rest in spite.—Bishop Hopkins.

As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.—Burton.

God washes the eyes by tears until they can behold the invisible land where tears shall come no more. O love I O affliction I ye are the guides that show us the way through the great airy space where our loved ones walked ; and, as hounds easily follow the scent before the dew be risen, so God teaches us, while yet our sorrow is wet, to follow on and find our dear ones in heaven.—Beecher.

It is from the remembrance of joys we have lost that the arrows of affliction arc pointed.—

Mackenzie.

It is a great thing, when our Gethsemane hours come, when the cup of bitterness is pressed to our lips, and when we prav that it may pass away, to feel that it is not fate, that it is not necessity, but divine love for good ends working upon us.—Chapin.

If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.—Burgh.

The cloud which appeared to the prophet Ezekiel carried with it winds and storms, but it was environed with a golden circle, to teach us that the storms of affliction, which happen to God's children, are encompassed with brightness and smiling felicity.—j.V. Caussin.

When sorrows come, they come not single Bpics, but in battalions.—Shakespeare.

In thy silent wishing, thy voiceless, unut- tered prayer, let the desire be not cherished that afflictions may not visit thee; for well has it been said, " Such prayers never seem to have wings. I am willing to be purified through sorrow, and to accept it meekly as a blessing. I see that all the clouds are angels' faces, and their voices speak harmoniously of the everlasting chime. —Mrs. L. M. Child.

Amid my list of blessings infinite stands this the foremost, " That my heart has bled."—

Young.

Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.—Bible.

The very afflictions of our earthly pilgrimage presages of our future glory, as shadows

indicate the sun.—liicliter.

As the most generous vine, if it is not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems, and grows at last weak ana fruitless; so doth the best man, if he be not cut short of his desires and pruned with afflictions. If it be painful to bleed, it is worse to wither. Let me be pruned, that I may grow, rather than be cut up to bum.—Bishop hall.

Corn is cleaned with wind, and the soul with chastening.—George Herbert.

No chastening for the present secmeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.—Bible.

Tears and sorrows and losses are a part Fairer and more fruitful in spring the vine of what must be experienced in this present becomes from the skilful pruning of the hus- Btate of life: some for our nlanifest good, and ! bandman ; less pure had been the gums which 11, therefore, it is trusted, for our good con- the odorous balsam gives if it had not been cut

cealed; — for our final and greatest good.—

Leigh Hunt.

Afflictions clarify the soul.—Quartet.

There is an elasticity in the human mind, capable of bearing much, but which will not show itself until a certain weight of affliction be pnt upon it; its powers may be compared to those vehicles whose springs are so contrived that they get on smoothly enough when loaded, but jolt confoundedly when they have nothing to bear.—Cotton.

Calamity is man's true touchstone.—Fletcher.

In a great affliction there is no light either in the stars or in the sun ; for when the inward light is fed with fragrant oil, there can be no darkness though the sun should go out. But when, like a sacred lamp in the temple, the inward light is quenched, there is no light outwardly, though a thousand suns should preside in the heavens.—Beecher.

by the knife of the Arabian shepherd.—

Afetasttiiio.

The good are better mndc by ill, as odors crushed are sweeter still!—Rogers.

No man ever stated his griefs as lightly as he might. For it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered ; the infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.—Emerson.

The loss of a beloved connection awakens an interest in heaven before unfelt.—Bovee.

Afflictions sent by Providence melt the constancy of the noble-minded, but confirm the obduracy of the vile. The same furnace that hardens clay liquefies gold; and in the strong manifestations of divine |>ower Pharaoh found his punishment, but David his pardon.—Cotton.

With every anguish of our earthly part the spirit's sight grows clearer; this was meant when Jesus touched the blind man's lids with clay.—

The great, in affliction, bear a countenance more princelv than they are wont; for it is the temper of the highest heart, like the palm- tree, to strive most upward when it is most burdened.—Sir P. Sidney.

What seem to us but dim funereal tapers may be heaven's distant lamps.—Longfellow.

F/xtraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.—

Matthew llfnry.

The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough.—Carlyle.

As they lay copper in aquafortis before they begin to engrave it, so the Lord usually prepares us by the searching, softening discipline of affliction for making a deep, lasting impression of himself upon our hearts.—J. T. Nottidge.

God afflicts with the mind of a father, and With the wind of tribulation God separates, kills for no other purpose but that he may raise , in the floor of the soul, the chaff from the gain.—South. corn.—Molinot.

Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions. -Matthew Henry.


God is now spoiling us of what would otherwise have spoiled us. When God makes the world too hot for his people to hold, they will let it go.—T. Powell.

How blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver in comparison with those of guilt!—Blair.

There is a quiet repose and steadiness about ! the happiness of age, if the life has been well j spent. Its feebleness is not puinful. The nervous system has lost its aeutenesss. Even in mature years we feel that a burn, a scald, a cut, is more tolerable than it was in the sensitive period of youth.—Hazl'M.

Old age is a tyrant, which forbids the pleasures of youth on pain of death.—Rochefoucauld.

Afflictions are the medicine of the mind. Life grows darker as we go on, till only one If they are not toothsome, let it suffice that they ' pure light is left shining on it; and that.is fnith. are wholesome. It is not required in physic Old age, like solitude and sorrow, has its revela- that it should please, but heal.—Bishop HensHaw. tions.—Madame Swelchine.

'T is a physic that is bitter to sweet end.— Shakespeare.


There will be no Christian but what will have a Gethsemane, but everv praying Christian will find that there is no 6ethsemane without its angel!—Rev. T. Biimey.