Profitable Tribulations

Albert F. Gilmore

The student of Paul's career cannot fail to be impressed by the tremendous courage and fortitude which characterized the arduous experience of this militant apostle in carrying the gospel to the Gentiles. Beset by dangers, harassed in a degree experienced by few Christians, often in poverty and frequently in the hands of those who would have destroyed him, yet he carried on his work of establishing the teachings of his Lord and Master throughout the then known world. In his illuminating discussion of the problem of justification by faith, set forth in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Christians at Rome, Paul makes the extraordinary statement of the profit he has derived from the very tribulations which, viewed at this distance, seem so harsh, even cruel, did one not see them from a like standpoint.

Paul recognized that the peace he had with God came through the exalted example of Christ Jesus; and that by him he also had access to the grace of which he was conscious. And he rejoiced in the revelation of God's glory, declaring, "Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed." Thus Paul recognized that the very hardships which he had experienced had caused him to develop the identical qualities which would strengthen him by forcing him to walk more closely with God.

Mrs. Eddy has given equal assurance that whatever compels one to turn to God for deliverance is a blessing in disguise, for it compels the sufferer to awaken to the recognition of the stupendous fact that God, who is infinite, is ever at hand, and available to supply whatever the human need may seem to be. In making it clear that false sense is destroyed through suffering, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 196 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Better the suffering which awakens mortal mind from its fleshly dream, than the false pleasures which tend to perpetuate this dream."

To be sure, the so-called mortal mind, which revolves altogether in its own orbit of materiality, with no slightest vision of spiritual reality, revolts at the thought that suffering could by any means profit one. Nevertheless, the suffering which turns one to God, and leads the sufferer to invoke His aid, brings an end to suffering through the revelation that it is no part of the real man's selfhood. This experience blesses beyond measure; for it awakens mortals from their belief in mortality, from the dream that matter is the source of life and its support, and prepares them for the reception of spiritual truth. It clears thought of the negative to make way for the positive, the truth regarding which we have Jesus' own word that, by gaining an understanding of it, men are made free.

What benefit could possibly be derived from continuance in a state of thought which is false, mistaken, dealing only with negatives? Surely such a course can lead one into no good place. However far we may proceed along this weary road, it will never lead us to our goal. Then is it not to our advantage to be stopped by however rude a process, in order that we may be set in the right way? Jesus as Way-shower calls us from further journeying along the ways of falsity and suffering, and beckons us to follow him. His call, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls," is the most appealing message ever uttered; it admonishes us to give up the old false ways, the ways that end only in darkness and despair, and to walk in the ways that are lighted by the irradiance of God's changeless glory, the ways of righteousness and peace. It is Mrs. Eddy's exalted realization of this which finds expression on page 574 of Science and Health. "The very circumstance," she writes, "which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares." And the priceless possibility for good from this experience she sets forth in these beautiful words: "Then thought gently whispers: 'Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's wife,—Love wedded to its own spiritual idea.'" The awakening from the false sense of life and man, that is, from all material belief, is the experience through which every mortal is destined to pass. Flesh and blood can by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. The new birth which Christ Jesus set as the means of gaining the understanding of spiritual being is the awakening from false consciousness, from the belief in all unlike God, and the laying hold of spiritual truth. Then, indeed, Love is seen to be "wedded to its own spiritual idea," for Love and its expression can never be separated. How profitable may tribulations become to us when they awaken us from the darkness of material existence into the full light of God's fadeless glory!

Albert F. Gilmore

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Divine Protection

November 17, 1928

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