Aflictions...Are Good For Us!

Affliction, like the iron-smith, shapes as it smites. The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amid joy. Afflictions come to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise. Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to cure. By afflictions God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled us...