“Applauding crowds thy words may greet,
Or marvel at the gift
That calls such music from the quiv’ring strings;
But thou wilt never touch one heart
Till thou hast felt its sufferings–or in part.
“Then teach us, Son of God, to bear
As Thou Thyself hast borne,
That from our deepest pain the power may spring
That makes our brother strong–the power
Of sympathy and love, Heav’n’s richest dower.”
One wrote to a friend who for some time had been a sufferer, “God must love you very dearly to trust so much pain and sorrow to your care.” The thought of suffering as something entrusted to us by God is a very suggestive one. We may not be accustomed to think of it in this way. Yet there is no doubt that every trouble that comes to us is really a trust, something committed to us to be accepted by us, used as a gift of God and then accounted for.
It is thus, indeed, that all life comes to us. Nothing is our own to use for ourselves only. We receive our talent or talents, not to be spent on ourselves or as we please, but to be increased by proper use, held for the honour of the Master, employed for the benefit of the world, and then returned to our Lord when He calls for the accounting.
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