The Mystery of Suffering.

Suggested by the martyrdom in China of John and Betty Stam.
This is a brief series of comforting editorials on a difficult subject, by Dr. Henry W. Frost, Home Director Emeritus, for North America, of the China Inland Mission.
“For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake (Phil. 1: 29).
IN SPITE of the revelation in the Word of God concerning suffering, the experience of it must remain to us a mystery. As touching Christ, we can   understand why He suffered on Calvary’s Cross, for He was dying there, the Just for the unjust (1 Pet. 3: 18); but we ask, Why did He need to suffer through the length of His life, since He was not then expiating sin? And as touching ourselves, we ask, Why do we need to suffer when we are not offering any sacrifice for sin, and especially, when God could deliver us from suffering at any time? This last, He did in the days of old for some of the saints, working miracles on their behalf, such as delivering the apostles from prison (Acts 5: 19). But since that time, He has wrought no such miracle as this. Instead, He has, for the most part, sat silent in the heavens and has allowed His people to suffer; spiritually and physically, untold anguish. This has been true in general, in connection with sicknesses and accidents; and it has been true in particular in connection with persecutions, such as the Roman, Reformation, Madagascar, Armenian, and Boxer. The restraint of God at such times. is beyond our understanding, especially in view of certain promises in the Scriptures which speak of God as “the God of deliverance.” Face to face with such a mystery as this, all that human souls can do is to fall back upon our Lord’s saying, with its larger commitment of meaning, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13: 7).
The story has been told of a man who made a clock and showed it to a friend of his who had never before seen one. The fashioner of the clock opened the back of it and asked the man what he thought of its maker. The man saw some big wheels and other smaller ones, some wheels going one way and others another, and some wheels going slow and others fast. Seeing this confusion, he answered, “I think that the man who made that is mad.” Then the maker took his friend to the front side of the clock and asked, what now he thought of its maker. The man looked at the two hands of the clock moving smoothly and regularly, each one in its appointed circle and both of them telling perfectly the time of day, and he replied, “I think the man who made that is the wisest person who ever lived.”
This story. gives us a glimpse of a profound truth. The fault of our thinking arises from the fact that we stand here on earth, seeing the human side of God’s providences, and thus, fail to see His perfect designing. But one day, we shall stand on the other side, and then we shall understand. In the meantime, God asks us to believe, even though we do not understand. Peter had learned this lesson of faith and he wrote thus: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial. which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Pet. 4: 12, 13). And a little later, he added: “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Pet. 4: 19).
We shall now seek to understand as much about suffering as we may, from life’s experience, and especially from the Word of God.
Suffering Defined.
Suffering may be of three kinds: first, of the body apart from the spirit; second, of the spirit apart from the body; and third, of the body and spirit combined.
The relief of suffering may be of three kinds: it may be, when the suffering is only in the body, through a miraculous healing, or through the ministry of a physician or surgeon, or through rest and change; second, it may be, when the suffering is only in the spirit, through the Holy Spirit, in connection with the Word of God, some good book, or some comforting friend; and third, it may be, when the suffering is in both the body and spirit, through Divine interposition or medical or surgical treatment, or rest or change; and added to this, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Suffering Described.
All suffering is the result of Adam’s sin. If he had not sinned, there would be no cause for suffering, and hence, suffering would not exist. Since he did, sin and the consequences of sin passed upon all men, in that all have sinned (Rom. 5: 12), suffering, in some form or other, must be the portion of all mankind. The universality of death, which is the climax of suffering, is the indication and proof of this.
Suffering, physically or spiritually, may be the result of individual sin, and may be sent from God either in judgment or as a corrective.  But otherwise, it may come to one who is in full fellowship with God, as a result of his being identified with suffering humanity or in consequence of some other person’s sin and wrongdoing.
The Christian Way to Meet Suffering.
Suffering's Treatment.
As the cause of suffering is a variant, so one’s dealing with suffering must be various, according to the cause.
In case suffering is the result of individual sin, the sin must be confessed, first, to God, and then, if need be, to men. In this event, the sin being confessed, deliverance may be hoped for, though the time of deliverance will depend upon the will of God and the working out of His laws.
In case suffering results from one’s being identified with suffering humanity, God may not answer prayer for deliverance, but may require one to suffer with suffering mankind, especially with Christian mankind. For instance, a person may be a farmer living in an area where there has been a long-continued drought; it is not likely that God will send rain upon his one hundred acres when, for His own sufficient reasons, He is not prepared to send it upon the thousands of acres round about the farmer. Or, for instance, a person may be a manufacturer, doing business in the midst of a general financial depression; it is not likely, when people are unable to buy his commodities, that God will keep his factory running through all of the days, weeks, and months of the year, and at full speed. In such cases, Christians may expect that their Father in Heaven will answer prayer and supply their actual needs; but, being men, they must anticipate that it is probable that He will require them to suffer with other human sufferers, and especially, with other Christians. In such events, we are to be slow in asking for a deliverance which will be contrary to the manifest providences of God, and must be prepared humbly and lovingly, to accept our share of what He is apportioning to mankind at large.
In case suffering results from the sin or wrongdoing of others, we are not to misjudge God for allowing us to suffer when we have not been at fault, and we are to show compassion toward those who have sinned or done wrong, particularly, by asking God to forgive them and show mercy to them. In this event, remembering that God cannot always work speedily in view of what human hearts and lives are, we are to manifest the same patience toward him that we desire him to manifest toward us, and thus quietly to endure our suffering until his time of deliverance has come.
Suffering's Relationships.
It is well to remember, that we are not the only ones who have suffered or are suffering. And it is even better to remember that our suffering brings us into line with a long procession of saints, from Adam to the last Christian who has lived, all of whom, in greater or lesser degree have been sufferers. Such thoughts will prevent us from pitying ourselves overmuch, imagining that we should be exempt from that which all others have been called upon to endure. As a matter of fact, suffering has the advantage of bringing us into high and holy relationships, for, however bad a beginning it had, it has had a noble and glorious outcome. The saints of old, such as Job, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jeremiah, were great sufferers, and they bravely endured. Paul might be designated: as “the apostle of suffering,” for he suffered beyond ail other saints, and he bravely endured. And Christ, who was above all the saints, was the One who suffered: most of all, and He endured, even unto death. This is certainly an honorable company to be in companionship. with, and it behooves us not to shun suffering too eagerly or flee from it too readily, lest we miss being numbered with the truly good and great. Even prayer for deliverance from suffering should be offered with care and restraint, for our insistent petitioning may bring to us an escape from trial, but we may finally discover that we have obtained a second or third-best experience instead of a first-best one.
Suffering's Advantages.
Suffering is not always a loss. As a matter of fact, it is often a gain. With the Christian, it is a loss or gain according to his reception of it. Let it be renounced and fought against, and it will be a loss. Let it be welcomed and taken advantage of, and it will be a gain. The Scripture puts it in this way: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which. are exercised thereby" (Heb. 12: 11). Here the last words need to be noted, for they differentiate between those saints who are “exercised” by affliction and those who are not. The Scripture has particularly in mind those who are “exercised,” and its promises, in connection with suffering, are especially for these. The following are some of the advantages of the experience of suffering which the New Testament sets before us:
Suffering is not only Permitted by God, but also, is Appointed by Him. 
Paul, in magnifying the “love that will not let us go,” inserts these arresting words, “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed, all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom. 8: 36). Peter, who had great personal experience in suffering, said, “For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps” (1 Pet. 2: 28). And finally, Christ, the supreme sufferer, declared, “In the world, ye shall have tribulation”; “Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16: 2).
Suffering is to be Accepted as from the Lord and is to be Endured Willingly and Humbly.
Christ exhorted His disciples thus: “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15: 20). Paul, describing his sufferings, adds these words, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3: 12). And Peter writes, out of his deep experience in suffering, these steadying words, “For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God” (1 Pet. 2: 20).
Suffering is to be Regarded as a Privilege.
The text which we have put at the head of this series has a remarkable implication in it as it appears in the original Greek. We quoted the verse as it reads in the Authorized Version: “For unto you, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Phil, 1: 29). The American Standard Version has somewhat changed this reading as follows: “Because to you it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf.” The word which has been translated “given” in the one case and “granted” in the other, is charizomai, and, according to its root meaning, implies given or granted as a favor. In other words, God declares that suffering for Christ is one of his love-gifts to the Church. This is more than surprising; it is startling! Our idea of Divine love is that of Divine care, and especially, Divine deliverance from suffering, and here we are told. that suffering in behalf of Christ is a Divine favor, and thus, a God-given privilege. It will be well for us to remember this when suffering next confronts us.
The Silver Lining of Chastening.
Suffering results in Identifying us with Christ.
The Old Testament saints suffered for Christ. For instance, it is said of Moses, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin, for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb. 11: 25, 26). But the Old Testament saints did not suffer with Christ. This high privilege was left for the New Testament saints to enjoy. The experience of it was brought to pass by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when the Church as a whole was baptized into the one body, of which Christ is the Head and believers in Him are the members (1 Cor. 12: 13, 27). This explains that remarkable expression of Paul concerning his own sufferings—which all of us may use as touching ourselves—“Who now rejoice in my suffering for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Col. 1: 24). According to this verse, Christ did not cease to suffer when He went up on high but continues in suffering and will so continue until the members of His body with which He is identified have ceased their suffering,—this at His coming and their translation to Himself in Heaven. This explains that otherwise unexplainable expression of the Lord in the glory, when He spoke to Saul as he journeyed to Damascus, and said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9: 4) As a matter of fact, Saul was persecuting, not Christ, but the Church. And yet, as the head of the body feels the injury done to any of its members, so Christ felt the persecution that Saul was directing toward the suffering saints. This indeed is high honor, to have Christ so identified with us and ourselves so identified with Him.
Suffering makes us like Christ.
It is ever to be remembered, as touching the earthly life of Christ, that he was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53: 3). If, therefore, we desire to live as He lived and be what He was, we must share with Him His experience of suffering. This is the way of the Cross, which has been the cause of stumbling and rock and offense to so many in the past and to walk in that narrow and hard path which is the only one which leads to the throne. Paul understood God’s requirements better than we do, and he said that “we must, through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14: 22). Later, he wrote to the Roman Christians, “If children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him” (Rom. 8: 17). In other words, it is an unalterable law of God, “No Cross, no crown.” But, bearing the Cross, we shall wear the crown. And the reason is not far to seek: bearing the Cross brings us into fellowship with Christ and makes us like Him, so that His rewarding becomes our own (Rev. 20: 6).
Suffering Prepares us for Heaven.
Some time since, I was talking on the street with a very learned theological professor. He was in his older age and had been sick and I expressed my sympathy for him. Then I said, “Have you praised God for your sickness?”
“Oh, no,” he answered; “why should I?”
“Why,” I replied, “‘God has been preparing you to go to Heaven and this was very kind of Him, was it not?” And then I asked: “If you could remain perfectly well, be always full of vigor, and be able to go on indefinitely with your work of teaching, would you ever want to go to Heaven?”
My friend looked at me, then up the street, then down at the sidewalk, and then back at me. He finally gave me a rather feeble smile and said, “I don’t know that I should.” And probably his answer is the one which most of us would have been inclined to make. How good of God it is, therefore, to let suffering come to us so that we may be detached from earth and constrained to turn yearning eyes toward Heaven. It was all this that was in Paul’s mind when he said, “For which cause, we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen, are eternal” (2 Cor. 4: 16-18).
Suffering makes us Glorifying to Christ.
It does this in the present life. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews said: “Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12: 11). And it does the same for the future life. John had a vision of a company of martyred saints who had recently passed from earth to Heaven, and he heard one of the elders asking who they were, whereupon the elder answered his own question: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Rev. 7: 14-17). Through these words, we learn that the suffering saints receive in the eternal habitations, God’s double: soiled garments here, washed garments there; outcasts here, before the throne there; far from the person of Christ here, He in the midst of them there; hungering, thirsting, and smitten by scorching heat here, no hunger, thirst, or smiting sun there; weeping here, their tears wiped away there. These are the infinite compensations of an infinitely just and compassionate God. This then, is the glory He gives to us. And this is the glory we shall bring to Him, when He comes to be glorified in His saints (2 Thess. 1: 10). As Peter, the martyr saint, put it: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1: 5-7).
Triumph in the Midst of Suffering.
Suffering leads to Comforting.
We do not know God as He is, until we know Him as a Comforter. For it is in the act of comforting, that He fully reveals His faithfulness, love, and tenderness, which experiences we do not have until we pass through suffering. So it is a serious thing to turn away from suffering, for it will leave us with an undiscovered and unknown God. Moreover, we cannot know what we ourselves may be in the world until we have suffered; for it is only the one who has been Divinely comforted in the midst of suffering, who can comfort others. Paul had touched the deepest experiences in human living and this is what he had to say in respect to this aspect of suffering: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. 1: 3-6). Evidently then, it is better to suffer than not, both for ourselves and others.
Miss Maggie Scott of Martintown, Ontario, suffered in 1886, an injury to her spine and was bedridden for two years. At the end of that time, she was healed of the Lord and became entirely well. She offered herself to the China Inland Mission in 1889, and in the following year, went out to China. She served there for a number of years under the pronounced blessing of God. Then she fell sick from tuberculosis and had to retire from her much loved service. In passing through Toronto, on her way to her home, she stayed in the Mission Home there. One day at dinner, she asked permission to say something which was readily granted to her. Thereupon, our friend spoke as follows: “You can imagine that it has been a bitter disappointment to me, having been healed by the Lord of my spinal trouble, and not to be healed by Him of my tubercular affliction. I have waited long and earnestly upon Him for such a healing and have expected to receive it. But it has not come. It looks, therefore, as if I have left China for good and am on my way home to die. This has been a great mystery to me, and I have hardly known what to make of it. But I want to say that I have finally come to the conclusion that God’s way is perfect, and also that I have got something better than healing, namely, love. I have never before known so much about the love of God and that of His children. It was love out there in China, and it has been love here at home, and I am sure that it will be love until the end. So now, I am not dissatisfied. God has kept back a good thing that He may give to me a better one, and I am well content with His will and way.”
Our sister went home to die. But the light of glory which had fallen upon her face never left it, even after she had passed away. In other words, she had been comforted by God. And we may add that, through her comforting, she became an infinite comforting to us.
Suffering’s Ending.
It is a well-known fact that, for some centuries, men at large, including Christians, have been largely exempt from suffering, especially that which results from persecution and Divine judgment. Aside from suffering of a general kind and that which has been occasioned by war, most peoples, particularly in the homelands, have been permitted to live out their lives in quietness and peace.
But it looks now, as if a change has taken place. The world, inclusive of the Church, seems to have entered into troublous times, wherein men’s animosities and God’s punishments are being expressed in new forms and measures. And possibly, such tides of suffering will soon break over the earth as it has never known and as will be overwhelming in their effect.
But, after all, what matters it? Time is short and eternity is long, and one moment in the presence of God will make us forget whatever suffering we have passed through. A little more enduring and we shall be at rest. Then we shall know, as we do not now, the meaning of those precious words: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21: 4). And thus, at last—oh, wonder of wonders!—all of earth’s mysteries will be forever gone.
“The Sunday School Times” June 29-July 20, 1935