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Suffering: Quotations from Burning Words

There is seldom a line of glory written upon the earth's face, but a line of suffering runs parallel with it; and they that read the lustrous syllables of the one, and stoop not to decipher the spotted and worn inscription of the other, get the least half of the lesson earth has to give.— F. W. FABER

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seamed with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation robes glittering with fire; and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the gate of heaven.— E. H. CHAPIN

No flower can bloom in paradise which is not transplanted from Gethsemane. The cross of Christ is the pledge to us that the deepest suffering may be the condition of the highest blessing; the sign, not of God's displeasure, but of His widest and most compassionate face.— DEAN STANLEY

Not till I was shut up to prayer and to the study of God's word by the loss of earthly joys - sickness destroying the flavor of them all-did I begin to penetrate the mystery that is learned under the cross. And wondrous as it is, how simple is this mystery! To love Christ, and to know that I love Him- this is all. Suffering is my gain; I bow— E. PRENTISS

To my Heavenly Father's will, And receive it hushed and still ; Suffering is my worship now.— JEAN PAUL RICHTER

Our merciful Father has no pleasure in the sufferings of His children; He chastens them in love; He never inflicts a stroke He could safely spare; He inflicts it to purify as well as to punish, to caution as well as to cure, to improve as well as to chastise.— HANNAH MORE

Some of His children must go into the furnace to testify that the Son of God is there with them.— E. PRENTISS

He hears thy faintly sobbing breath, He marks each quivering limb ; He drank a cup for thee alone - Child! drink it now with Him. Toil on, O weary, way-worn sufferer! bear up, O crushed and sorrowing heart! thy bed of pain, thy silent heroism, thy patient Christian walk, thy resignation, and thy grief, glow all unconsciously to thee with winning radiance, and fill the world with life's sweetest fragrance - as bruised flowers with perfume do the air.— ALEXANDER DICKSON

He knows the bitter, weary way, The endless striving day by day, The souls that weep, the souls that pray He knows! He knows! Oh thought so full of bliss! For though on earth our joy we miss, We still can bear it, feeling this, - He knows! He knows; O heart take up thy cross, And know earth's treasures are but dross, And He will prove as gain our loss ! He knows.— MARIAN LONGFELLOW

In the highest class of God's school of suffering we learn not resignation nor patience, but rejoicing in tribulation.— J. H. VINCENT