It's He who was the Word before the foundation of the world, suffering as a lamb slain. And He has a lot up His sleeve that you and I haven't the slightest idea about now. He's told us enough so that we know suffering is never for nothing.

Suffering creates the possibility of growth in, holiness, but only to those who, by letting all else go, are open to the training—not by arguing with the Lord about what they did or did not do to deserve punishment, but by praying, "Lord, show me what You have for me in this.

isn't the problems that determine our destiny. It's how we respond.

Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all. In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by You.

The word suffering is much too grand to apply to most of our troubles, but if we don't learn to refer the little things to God how shall we learn to refer the big ones? A definition which covers all sorts of trouble, great or small, is this: having what you don't want, or wanting what you don't have. The vicissitudes of travel furnish plenty of what Janet Erskine Stuart calls "blessed inconveniences," occasions which fit both categories in our definition.

In times of deepest suffering it is the faithful carrying out of ordinary duties that brings the greatest consolation.

Some day, even you will see that there's sense in this. Your suffering is never for nothing.

I say that I found peace. I do not say that I was not lonely. I was--terribly. I do not say that I did not grieve. I did--most sorely. But peace of that sort the world cannot give comes, not by the removal of suffering, but in another way--through acceptance.

Many deaths must go into us reaching that measure, many letting go's.

But I can say that I know the One who knows. And I've come to see that it's through the deepest suffering that God has taught me the deepest lessons. And if we'll trust Him for it, we can come through to the unshakable assurance that He's in charge. He has a loving purpose. And He can transform something terrible into something wonderful. Suffering is never for nothing.

God makes the assignments, and he apportions the degree of difficulty in precise measurements.

There is no qualitative or quantitative measurement for pain. It is simply there--sharp or dull, shooting or stabbing, bearable or excruciating, local or general, it is unexplained, uninvited, unavoidable. It takes command. It is all-encompassing, implacable, exigent.