How God Weaves Adversity into Eternal Good

All things work together for good to them that love God. The apostle Paul supposes the concurrence of two or more events, all verging towards the good of him to whom they have befallen. Often a single adversity bears permanent good within it. The disease brought on by intemperance has germinated; the loss by daring speculation has checked the adventurer and turned him into the way of safe, moderate prosperity. Even apart from Christianity, man has found it good to have been afflicted—under severe but salutary discipline, wisdom increased, character strengthened, and the rough independence of human wilfulness tamed.

For the man who loves God, these inflictions carry eternal weight. The overthrow of his fortune gives him a strong practical set for eternity; the death of his child weaned him from all idolatry; the tempests of life fasten him more steadfastly to the hold of religious principle. He is made perfect by sufferings. Yet adverse visitations do not always come singly. Misfortunes seldom arrive alone, and it is the compounding of one evil with another that aggravates distress. When we are lost in bewilderments we cannot scan, entangled in mazes we cannot unravel, it is well to be told that all is ordered and that all worketh for good. Important consequences emanate from events seemingly insignificant—the veriest trifle reshapes your whole futurity. Thus all things remain under the control of Yahweh, who maketh all things work together for good unto those who love Him.