God exercises wisdom in permitting afflictions and in removing afflictions. He is wise to suit his medicine to the condition of our disease. He cannot mistake the nature of our disease, or the virtue of his remedy. Like a skilful Doctor, God sometimes prescribes bitter potions, and sometimes cheering cordials, according to the strength of the malady, and necessity of the patient, to bring him to health. Everything that comes from God is for our good. He does not do anything in a rash and reckless way. His wisdom is as infinite as his goodness, and as exact in managing as his goodness is plentiful in streaming out to us. God understands our griefs, weighs our necessities, and no remedies are beyond the reach of his skilful planning. When our feeble intelligences are bewildered in a maze, and at the end of their line for a rescue, the remedies unknown to us are not unknown to God. When we do not know how to prevent a danger, the wise God has a thousand blocks to lay in the way. When we do not know how to free ourselves from an oppressive evil, God has a thousand ways of relief. He knows how to time our afflictions, and his own blessings…How comforting it is to know that our distresses, as well as our deliverances are the fruits of infinite wisdom! Nothing is done by him too soon or too slow, but in the true point of time, with all its due circumstances, most conveniently for his glory and our good. How wise is God, to bring the glory of our salvation out of the depths of a seeming ruin, and make the evils of affliction subservient to the good of the afflicted!
STEPHEN CHARNOCK
(Source: Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume II)
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