"Fear not the
darkness," said the Persian sage; it "conceals perhaps the springs
of the waters of life." Experience is often bitter, but
wholesome; only by its teaching can we learn to suffer and be
strong. Character, in its highest forms, is disciplined by trial,
and "made perfect through suffering." Even from the deepest
sorrow, the patient and thoughtful mind will gather richer wisdom
than pleasure ever yielded.
"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made."
"Consider," said Jeremy Taylor, "that sad accidents, and a state
of afflictions, is a school of virtue. It reduces our spirits to
soberness, and our counsels to moderation; it corrects levity, and
interrupts the confidence of sinning.... God, who in mercy and
wisdom governs the world, would never have suffered so many
sadnesses, and have sent them, especially, to the most virtuous
and the wisest men, but that He intends they should be the
seminary of comfort, the nursery of virtue, the exercise of
wisdom, the trial of patience, the venturing for a crown,
and the gate of glory." (16)
And again:--"No man is more miserable than he that hath no
adversity. That man is not tried, whether he be good or bad;
and God never crowns those virtues which are only FACULTIES
and DISPOSITIONS; but every act of virtue is an ingredient
unto reward." (17)
Prosperity and success of themselves do not confer happiness;
indeed, it not unfrequently happens that the least successful in
life have the greatest share of true joy in it.
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