| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 20 |
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In a passage in the Old Testament there is intimation that the manners of the people of Israel very sorely tried the Lord in the days of the wilderness wanderings. It is said that for about the space of forty years He suffered their manners in the wilderness – not only bore with them, but suffered from them. There is no doubt that their manners were very bad. They were always murmuring and complaining. They did not praise the God who had done so much for them. They were ungrateful and rebellious. It is given as a mark of the Divine patience that the Lord suffered or endured their manners all those years. It is implied, also, that He was sorely grieved by all that was so unbeautiful and so unworthy in their manners.
There is a class of ill manners which is much too common, and which many persons seem not to think of as in any way ungracious – the habit of fretting and complaining about one’s condition or circumstances.
There are some people who’s greatest pleasure appears to be found in talking about their discomforts and miseries, their ill health, their trials. They seem never to think there is anything discourteous or unrefined in thus inflicting upon their neighbours the tale of their real or imagined at least exaggerated, woes. Yet the truest Christian spirit always avoids the intruding of self in any way, especially the unhappy or suffering self, into the life of others. “By the grace of God I never fret,” said Wesley. “I am discontented with nothing. And to have persons at my ear fretting and murmuring at everything is like tearing the flesh off my bones.”
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