Affliction and Desertion: by Way of Consolation and Instruction

Affliction and misery are the common burden of the sons of Adam. In the present life, all are subject to misery, some more, some less. We walk through a valley of tears, live in a groaning world; none have such an uninterrupted current of worldly happiness but that they have their crosses and afflictions. These things are common to man. We are told in the book of Job, 5: 7, “Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward:” and xiv. 1, “Man that is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble.” None can reasonably expect to be absolutely exempted from the common lot of human fallen nature. Though life be short yet is it long enough to be vexed with many sorrows. “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,” saith old Jacob, Gen. xlvii. 9. Since they are evil, it is well they are but few. Few men consider this, that they come into the world to bear crosses but rather imagine they come hither to spend their days in pleasure; at least they do not observe the true cause of their troubles, nor the remedy. The true cause is sin. Man's transgressions are the door by which it entered. And the proper remedy is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Whatever, then, may be the particular and various dispensations of God towards men, yet to be miserable in some sort or degree is common to all Adam's posterity, which should make us look higher than the present life. It may be asked, —what need was there for another book on the subject of affliction? Have we not already those that are excellent? — Hill's “It is Well.”—Cecil's “Visit to the House of Mourning.”— “Griffith and The Wall of Affliction.” To this I would answer, in the language of St. Paul, or rather of HIM, by whom St. Paul was inspired, “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. i. 3, 4.