"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4: 17-18.
The two pivot words in this Scripture are working and looking. The affliction worketh glory, while the believer looketh at the unseen.
The term "worketh" covers the domain of the Holy Spirit's office, and the term "looketh" covers the domain of the believer's activity. The truth taught in the verses is that of a marvelous transmutation of pain into pleasure, of hardship into happiness, of tribulation into transport. It is an inconceivable wonder of divine chemistry i~ which affliction, time, the believing soul and the Holy Spirit are factors. Elsewhere Paul tells us that he " reckoned the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be in us." It were as if by the light of eternity he had weighed and measured the elements of suffering and glory and reached a mathematical conclusion. But this could only be by taking into his comprehensive grasp the entire destiny of the Christian. Had he confined his calculations to a small section of human existence, the result would have been far different. God sees all things, even the smallest, in the light of their true and eternal relations, and it was in that light that Paul surveyed the interests of mankind and especially those of the Christian; not with reference to a brief period in their existence, but swept with eagle eye the entire annals of their destiny. This is the only light in which we can perceive the equality and justice of God's ways, or by which we can interpret the dark and contradictory problems of life.
We can never see the full harmony and proportion of parts in any subject of observation without taking in the whole, and studying the relation of each part to the whole. When this life is cut off from the future, everything in it is utterly unexplainable. You may select a few of the finest notes in some majestic anthem, and if they are sounded alone and apart from the whole, they would lose all their melody and charm. Each note alone as a monotone is unmusical, but when they all glide together in round billows of music they roll and break with strange rapture upon our ears. The inequaiities of the earth's surface, the elevations and depressions, if viewed only with reference to small sections, seem out of all proportion, but could we station ourselves at a sufficient distance from the earth and see its whole circumference pass in review before us, then every local inequality would be so related to the whole as to render them constituents of harmony and perfection. In like manner, we do not live long enough to catch the full anthem of God's administration. His providence strikes a few notes in our ears during our short lives, but from these we cannot gather "the full diapason thunder roll," the completion of which fills the flight of ages. And the inequalities of human fortune, "the good man's tears, the pangs of despised love, the law's delays, the insolence of office, the scorn which patient merit bears," compose a moral landscape in life like Alps and deserts out of all proportion, until human destiny is surveyed in its entire orbit with its far-reaching circumference of immortality.
The spiritual chemistry suggested in the text is well worth analysis. It would seem that everything depends on the moral quality of the soul and its attitude toward the unseen. If the believer is holy, if his nature is in harmony with the Holy Spirit, if he habitually looks to the things of eternity, then whatever of suffering enters into his life is transmuted by the moral quality of his heart into the gold of glory. Just as the oak converts all chemistry into oak by the peculiar quality of its oak life, so the pure in heart, he that lives the Christ life, will from the dark chemistry of this world -- its disappointments and suffering -- turn all things into glory and praise.
There are three contrasts in the text, that between affliction and glory, that between the terms light and weight, and that between momentary and eternal; and between these opposites is the soul of the believer. The first opposites are affliction and glory. This refers to that particular kind of glory which belongs to each individual Christian which St. Paul elsewhere calls the" glory to be revealed in us," and which is not transferable to anyone else. Though there is such a contrast between affliction and glory, yet when you place a trusting, obedient Christian soul between them, such a soul becomes a divine laboratory through which this working process goes on, and under the touch of the Almighty Spirit of God, cooperating with man's obedience and love, the sourest acid of affliction is transmuted into the sweetest fruit of glory. There seems no intimate relation between prussic acid and a ripe peach, but if you interpose the roots and trunk of a vital healthy peach tree between them, that deadliest of poisons in passing through the arteries and life of the tree is transformed into one of the most luscious of fruits. So that it is not the affliction in itself that constitutes the glory, but it is the affliction working itself through a regenerated and purified soul, otherwise it would remain a deadly poison, " for the sorrow of the world worketh death." Affliction can work out glory in the soul by bringing it into most thorough acquiescence to the divine will and purpose. While it cannot purify the soul it can bring the soul into such submission to the divine will, that the whole purpose of God's saving remedy can pass unobstructed through the heart.
We go through tribulation, but moral whiteness is by the blood of the Lamb. We are, and through eternity must remain, under the sovereign will and wisdom of God, but that authority over us will be a source of boundless fear and pain unless we are in agreement with it. This alone will fit us as subjects for such a kingdom, for the issues and employments of immortality. This great lesson cannot be learned amid an unbroken flow of mild indulgence. If divine providence should never cross the path of our earthly happiness, our faith and loyalty would have no test, we would not come in direct contact with divine authority. It is affliction that makes the hand of God, as it were, tangible to the soul, it is then that we touch the scepter of the Almighty.
Again, affliction may work glory in the soul by enlarging its capacities. The capacity of suffering and enjoyment must be equal and that species of joy which comes out of suffering is in the nature of things doubled. The glory of any being is in proportion to the greatness of its capabilities to the volume and variety of experiences which it can contain. Therefore, whatever enlarges our conformity to the cross of Christ, to His diversified self-abnegation, to His patient suffering, must increase possibilities of enjoyment with Him. In the afflictions incident to a true Christian arising from such multiplied and sometimes opposite sources, there is a strain upon the mind, a stress of longing, a hot tension of feeling, a surging of sensibility, an upheaving of the under ocean of the soul which causes the waters of life to swell beyond their former shores, and imparts to it such keenness of taste, such relish for the highest and best, as qualifies it to more fully appreciate the joys that are divine.
Again, affliction works glory by widening the circle of knowledge and fellowship with the moral universe, by giving us a similarity and acquaintance with the great and good of all ages. If our religious life should be an uninterrupted season of summer days, it would debar us from knowing a large portion of the moral experiences of the world; it would exclude us from the inner and sublime fellowship of the martyrs and the white-robed company who have gone up through great tribulation. Affliction is the alphabet through which we read large portions of revelation l it is the clew by which we interpret the shaded lore of the oppressed, the persecuted and heroic of all time; the sheepskin brigade of whom the world was not worthy; it furnishes a passport to the internal solitudes of the man of sorrows, and unveils the mysterious anguish of the man of Uz. Thus, by extending the circle of fellowship with the great and good, by sinking us into deeper union with the divine will, by testing the principles of love and obedience, by curbing our impetuosity, by chastening our judgment, by melting to a warmer temperature the feelings of the heart, by enlarging the sweep of our sympathies, affliction can be made to throw over our whole character a softer and brighter luster than it were possible otherwise to obtain. These are a few instances by which affliction may work out in a Christian au imperishable glory, a glory which is rooted and grounded in the character, a glory which sprouts, blooms and fruits from the torn and plowed soil of the soul, a glory which being planted in your own nature, warmed by your own prayers, and watered with your own tears, can never be taken from you, but an inherent internal product of glory, beauty and honor, beaming with perennial loveliness upon your own character and fitted to adorn the paradise of God.
