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I. IN WHATEVER FORM AFFLICTION COMES, IT IS DESIGNED BY GOD TO DO US GOOD. An old writer says: "Afflictions are used by God, as thorns are by husbandmen, to stop the gaps, and to keep us from breaking out of God's ways."

II. THE SPIRIT IN WHICH AFFLICTION SHOULD BE RECEIVED. Trials must not be received thoughtlessly and as a matter of course; their cause and their purpose must be carefully studied. The grace of submission must be earnestly sought, that there may be no murmuring, much less rebellion, but patient endurance and resignation to the Divine will. Unwavering trust in God must be exercised. There must also be a willingness to learn His lessons, a teachableness of disposition, an earnest desire to endeavour to extract from our affliction all the profit which it is designed to bring.

III. THE BENEFITS RESULTING FROM AFFLICTION IF RECEIVED IN A RIGHT SPIRIT.

1. By sorrow the heart is made tender and susceptible to the influences of the Holy Spirit. Religion is welcomed by the bleeding heart as the choicest and most effectual balm.

2. Affliction rightly endured increases our love for God's Word and obedience to His law.

3. Few motives to prayer are more powerful and effectual than those furnished by affliction.

4. Afflictions afford the best possible sphere for the exhibition and for the growth of the graces of the Spirit. How can we know we have faith unless our faith be tested? Hope, like a bright star, is best seen on a dark night; and love is most conspicuous when it clings in spite of perplexity and pain.

5. The benefits of affliction are not confined to the immediate sufferers. If rightly endured by us, others are benefited, both by our example and by the tender sympathy which we are led to feel for them in their distresses.

(A. O. Smith, B. A.)

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KJV: It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

WEB: It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.