The thing
is not possible. Nor is it desirable. We _need_ a little trouble now and
then to keep us awake; and God will take care that we have it. We had
better therefore look for it, and when it comes, bear it patiently. It
is no use fretting or fuming; it only makes things worse. When we are
restless under little troubles, God sends us greater ones; and if our
impatience continues, he sends us greater still. And there is no remedy.
An eel may wriggle itself "out of the frying-pan, into the fire;" but it
cannot wriggle itself back again out of the fire, even into the
frying-pan. And so it is with us. We may wriggle ourselves out of one
little trouble, into two greater ones; but we cannot wriggle ourselves
back again out of the two greater ones, into the little one. The longer
we resist the will of God, the worse we shall fare. We had better
therefore bear the ills we have, than plunge into others that we know
not of. It is best to submit at once. If we were wise we should say with
the Redeemer, "The cup that My Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?"
God knows what is best for us, and He will never inflict on us a pang
which He does not see to be necessary to our usefulness and welfare. It
is not for His own pleasure that He afflicts us, but for our profit,
that we may be partakers of His holiness.
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