od; nor does it
refine, ennoble, or enrich us. The pure gold comes from the fire only and
the tempered steel also must have passed through the flame. God would have
us pure as gold and as strong as steel, and to have us so he can not spare
the flame. We must pass through the furnace of affliction. We are told
that God "doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men" (Lam.
3: 33). It is only that something may come out of it that will be better
and more blessed than could have been without it.

We know in reality only what we know by experience. Those who would be
instruments in God's hands to help others must often have a preparatory
training-course in the school of suffering; how else could they know how
to help others? Brother, sister, has God called you to do a work for him?
If so you need not marvel if he lets the rod of pain be laid upon you. If
you have hindrances which seem to shut up the way before you, if you have
trials that you can not understand, if you have disappointments and
perplexities, if you have spiritual conflicts that threaten to overwhelm
you, do not think it strange. How can you teach others how to bear such
things if you have not borne them? How can you know the way out for others
if you have never gone that way? How can you teach others to look for the
blessings in these things if you have not their fruitage in your own life?
Those who have suffered most can enter most into the sufferings of others.

The successful worker will find that the strength and wisdom that bring
him success was the gift of pain, and had not pain brought him strength
and knowledge, success could not now be his. Likewise sometimes we must
suffer for others if we would save them. So if you would be a worker for
God and know how to enter truly into the sorrows and needs of others, you
must yourself drink the bitter cup and feel the chastening rod.

After the Lord called me to his work, I endured some great soul-conflicts.
In them I suffered inexpressibly. I almost despaired at times, but I look
back upon those things now as being the things that made me understand the
human heart, that gave me a broader sympathy, and that have since enabled
me to enter into the sorrows and needs of others and to minister comfort
and help as I could not otherwise have done. Those early sufferings
unlocked a thousand mysteries and enriched not only my own life but also
the lives of others. Endure these things with patience; for ou