AFFLICTION
Alexander, James W.
The hiding places of men are discovered by affliction.—As one has aptly said, "Our refuges are like the nests of birds; in summer they are hidden away among the green leaves, but in winter they are seen among the naked branches."
Anonymous
Come then, affliction, if my Father wills, and be my frowning friend. A friend that frowns is better than a smiling enemy.
Atterbury, Francis
Affliction is a school of virtue: it corrects levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning.
Bartol, Cyrus A.
Paradoxical as it may seem, God means not only to make us good, but to make us also happy, by sickness, disaster and disappointment.
Beecher, Henry Ward
Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.
Affliction comes to us all not to make us sad, but sober; not to make us sorry, but wise; not to make us despondent, but by its darkness to refresh us, as the night refreshes the day; not to impoverish, but to enrich us, as the plough enriches the field; to multiply our joy, as the seed, by planting, is multiplied a thousand-fold.
Binney, Thomas
Nothing can occur beyond the strength of faith to sustain, or transcending the resources of religion to relieve.
No Christian but has his Gethsemane; but every praying Christian will find there is no Gethsemane without its angel.
Bonar, Horatius
How fast we learn in a day of sorrow! Scripture shines out in a new effulgence; every verse seems to contain a sunbeam, every promise stands out in illuminated splendor; things hard to be understood become in a moment plain.
Brooks, Phillips
There is such a difference between coming out of sorrow merely thankful for belief, and coming out of sorrow full of sympathy with, and trust in, Him who has released us.
Brown, John of Haddington
Heaven tries our virtue by afflictions; as oft the cloud that wraps the present hour, serves but to lighten all our future days!
Burgh, James
If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.
Burton, Richard E.
As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.
Bushnell, Horace
I have learned more of experimental religion since my little boy died than in all my life before.
Cecil, Richard
Never was there a man of deep piety, who has not been brought into extremities—who has not been put into fire—who has not been taught to say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."
Chinese Proverb
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
Chapin, Edwin Hubbell
It is a great thing, when the cup of bitterness is pressed to our lips, to feel that it is not fate or necessity, but divine love working upon us for good ends.
Colton, Caleb C.
It is not until we have passed through the furnace that we are made to know how much dross there is in our composition.
Afflictions sent by providence melt the constancy of the noble minded, but confirm the obduracy of the vile, as the same furnace that liquifies the gold, hardens the clay.
Cudworth, Ralph
Sanctified afflictions are like so many artificers working on a pious man's crown to make it more bright and massive.
Cuyler, Theodore Ledyard
God sometimes washes the eyes of his children with tears that they may read aright his providence and his commandments.
Emmons, Nathaniel
We are apt to overlook the hand and heart of God in our afflictions, and to consider them as mere accidents, and unavoidable evils.—This view makes them absolute and positive evils which admit of no remedy or relief.—If we view our troubles and trials aside from the divine design and agency in them, we cannot be comforted.
Guthrie, Thomas
As in nature, as in art, so in grace; it is rough treatment that gives souls, as well as stones, their lustre. The more the diamond is cut the brighter it sparkles; and in what seems hard dealing, there God has no end in view but to perfect his people.
Hall, Joseph
The most generous vine, if not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems and grows at last weak and fruitless: so doth the best man if he be not cut short in his desires, and pruned with afflictions.
Hemans, Felicia
Strength is born in the deep silence of longsuffering hearts; not amid joy.
Henry, Matthew
Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.—Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
It has done me good to be somewhat parched by the heat and drenched by the rain of life.
What seem to us but dim funereal tapers, may be heaven's distant lamps.
Mackenzie, Henry
It is from the remembrance of joys we have lost that the arrows of affliction are pointed.
Mallet, David
Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue, where patience, honor, sweet humuily, and calm fortitude, take root and strongly flourish.
Molinos, Miguel de
With the wind of tribulation God separates, in the floor of the soul, the wheat from the chaff.
Mulock, Dinah Maria
The only way to meet affliction is to pass through it solemnly, slowly, with humility and faith, as the Israelites passed through the sea. Then its very waves of misery will divide, and become to us a wall, on the right side and on the left, until the gulf narrows before our eyes, and we land safe on the opposite shore.
Munger. Theodore T.
The lessons we learn in sadness and from loss are those that abide.—Sorrow clarifies the mind, steadies it, forces it to weigh things correctly.—The soil moist with tears best feeds the seeds of truth.
Parker, Theodore
It is not from the tall, crowded work house of prosperity that men first or clearest see the eternal stars of heaven.
Powell, Sir John
By afflictions God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled us.—When he makes the world too hot for us to hold, we let it go.
Prime, Samuel I.
If your cup seems too bitter, if your burden seems too heavy, be sure that it is the wounded hand that is holding the cup, and that it is He who carries the cross that is carrying the burden.
Richter, Jean Paul
The very afflictions of our earthly pilgrimage are presages of our future glory, as shadows indicate the sun.
Rogers, Samuel
We should always record our thoughts in affliction: set up waymarks, that we may recur to them in health; for then we are in other circumstances, and can never recover our sick-bed views. The good are better made by ill, as odors crushed are sweeter still.
Shakespeare, William
Never on earth calamity so great, as not to leave to us, if rightly weighed, what would console 'mid what we sorrow for.
Shepard, Edward
The soul that suffers is stronger than the soul that rejoices.
Southey, Robert
Affliction is not sent in vain from the good God who chastens those that he loves.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon
The lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.
As sure as God puts his children into the furnace of affliction, he will be with them in it.
Taylor, Jeremy
That which thou dost not understand when thou readest, thou shalt understand in the day of thy visitation; for many secrets of religion are not perceived till they be felt, and are not felt but in the day of calamity.
Tillotson, John
Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure.
Walton, Izaak
Affliction is a divine diet which though it be not pleasing to mankind, yet Almighty God hath often imposed it as a good, though bitter, physic, to those children whose souls are dearest to him.
Young, Edward
Affliction, is the good man's shining scene; prosperity conceals his brightest ray; as night to stars, woe lustre gives to man.
Amid my list of blessings infinite, stands this the foremost, "that my heart has bled."
