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I. SUFFERING IS ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY SERVE GOD.

1. The remarkable feature here is, that though it is a part of St. Paul's call to his mission, God does not say, "I will show him how great things he must do," but "how great things he must suffer." The service of work is subordinated to the service of suffering. And whenever St. Paul makes a retrospect of his own life he always takes the same view. As, for instance, in that catalogue in 2 Corinthians 11, the hardships and sorrows far outstripped the actions — the active being literally only two — "journeyings often," "the care of all the churches," — the passive at least twenty-seven.

2. And no wonder that St. Paul accounted more of the service of suffering than of the service of work. Was not it so with his Master and ours? What makes the Saviour what He is to us, is not what He wrought, but what He encountered; not what He did for the Father, but what the Father did to Him.

3. And in a world like this it must be so always. Every man being witness, it is a harder thing to suffer than to work. Much greater is the number of them that work well, than of them that suffer well. In the fruits of the Spirit the passive grow the highest. For four thousand years, the service of God was the service of sacrifice; and the service of sacrifice was essentially the service of suffering. And living, as we do, in a dispensation in which still "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," etc., it would be sad indeed if we could not believe that there is a way in which every suffering thing does service to God.

4. Or take the same thought a step higher. What makes any word, or any work, or any thought which man ever offers to God, service? Is not it the Cross of Christ, the gathering point where the suffering of the whole universe meets? Is not, then, all service ultimately the service of suffering? The worship of a world of sin must be, to a very great extent, the service of pain. And we cannot thank God too much that the service of suffering which sin has made may, through Christ, go up the best of all service to Almighty God.

5. But if any man be tempted for a moment to think that his sufferings can add ought to the efficacy of the death of Christ, or that anything he can ever bear will give the slightest degree of merit to the kingdom of heaven, let that man carefully study that account of the saints in Revelation 7.

II. HOW MAY WE, BY GOD'S GRACE, MAKE SUFFERING SERVICE? Have faith that your suffering, in some way, known or unknown, is service, and by that faith it is. And indeed, if you accept your suffering from Christ, and bear it in and consecrate it to Christ, it will have such a savour of Christ in it, that it cannot help to go up and to be service in heaven. The service of suffering may be divided thus —

1. The direct service of suffering to God is to accept it from a Father's hand. Ask no questions, but look up trustingly. Say if it be but "Amen," and as soon as you can, "Hallelujah." Think, "This suffering of mine is Christ suffering in me. It makes me more one than I ever was before with Jesus Christ."

2. The service of suffering in sanctification. Whenever you pass into it, let your first prayer be, "Lord, for whatever end Thou hast sent this trial, let that end be fulfilled to me, in me, by me, to Thy glory." The purposes of suffering for sanctification are —

(1) Humiliation. To that end you must connect your sorrow with what? Sin? Not most. With the pardon of sin, with the love of God.

(2) Purity. Sorrow, passing through the heart, acts like a moral chemistry — the sin precipitates to the bottom; and so it leaves the water of the cup of life pure. Or rather, it is fire, to destroy the nature and self which, thank God, are consumable; and to leave the gold of grace, which, thank God, is not consumable. The best service which ever goes up to God is His own image. And God's image is purity.

(3) Consecration. The Christian, passing through suffering, is a servant gone into his Master's presence to receive orders.

3. The service of suffering to man, or more strictly, to God through man.

(1) Intercession. You are sent up to your room, to a lonely place on the mount, to pray for others who fight in the plain. Therefore you cannot work that you may pray.

(2) Testimony. Bear your witness — by silence, by looks, by speech, by a sweeter smile than when all was bright, by a kinder accent to the faithfulness of God, and the sufficiency of His grace. David was very great in the service of testimony. "It is good for me that I have been in trouble," "In the multitude of the sorrows which I have in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed my soul."(3) Sympathy. We never truly sympathise with what we have not felt. Therefore Christ sympathises with all, because He felt all.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

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KJV: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

WEB: For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake."