7. On Suffering

Be content to suffer whatever God sees fit to lay upon you. If you love Him purely, you will in this life seek Him as much on Mount Calvary as upon Tabor. You must love Him as much upon Calvary as upon Tabor, since it is on Calvary that He reveals the most of His love.

Do not be like those persons who give themselves to Him at one time, and take themselves back at another. They give themselves up to be caressed, but they withdraw again when they are crucified—or, rather, they go to seek consolation in the creature.

No, dear soul, you will never find true consolation except in the love of the cross and in complete surrender. He that does not relish the cross savors not the things that be of God. Matthew 16:23. It is impossible to love God without loving the cross; and, indeed, a heart that relishes the cross finds even the bitterest things to be sweet, pleasant, and delightful. The hungry soul finds bitter things sweet (Proverbs 27:7) because it hungers after God in the measure that it hungers after the cross. God gives us the cross, and the cross gives us to God.

The great sign of internal advancement is that one advances in the cross. Surrender and the cross go hand in hand.

Whenever anything occurs to which you feel a repugnancy, resign yourself immediately to God with respect to this very thing, and give up yourself as a sacrifice to Him. Then you shall see that when the cross comes, it will not be so very heavy, because you have willingly accepted it—although this will not keep you from feeling the weight of it. Some imagine that if we savor the cross we will not feel suffering; but to feel suffering is one of the essential aspects of suffering. Jesus Christ chose to endure the utmost sharpness of suffering. We often bear the cross in weakness, at other times with strength; all ought to be alike to us in the will of God.