When John Todd, a nineteenth-century clergyman, was six years old, both his parents died. A kind-hearted aunt raised him until he left home to study for the ministry. Later, this aunt became seriously ill, and in distress she wrote Todd a letter. Would death mean the end of everything, or could she hope for something beyond? Here, condensed from The Autobiography of John Todd, is the letter he sent in reply:

‘It is now thirty-five years since I, as a boy of six, was left quite alone in the world. You sent me word you would give me a home and be a kind mother to me. I have never forgotten the day I made the long journey to your house. I can still recall my disappointment when, instead of coming for me yourself, you sent your servant, Caesar, to fetch me.

‘I remember my tears and anxiety as, perched high on your horse and clinging tight to Caesar, I rode off to my new home. Night fell before we finished the journey, and I became lonely and afraid. ‘Do you think she’ll go to bed before we get there?’ I asked Caesar.

‘Oh no!’ he said reassuringly, ‘She’ll stay up for you. When we get out o’ these here woods, you’ll see her candle shinin’ in the window.’

‘Presently we did ride out into the clearing, and there, sure enough, was your candle. I remember you were waiting at the door, that you put your arms close about me,a tired and bewildered little boy. You had a fire burning on the hearth, a hot supper waiting on the stove. After supper you took me to my new room, heard me say my prayers, and then sat beside me till I fell asleep.

‘Some day soon God will send for you, to take you to a new home. Don’t fear the summons, the strange journey, or the messenger of death. God can be trusted to do as much for you as you were kind enough to do for me so many years ago. At the end of the road you will find love and a welcome awaiting, and you will be safe in God’s care.”

Here is a fact well known–the Lord afflicts His children. Trouble never springs out of the dust–nor do afflictions come by ‘chance’. No! Every trial and affliction is sent from our Father’s throne–and its direction is written by our Father’s hand. He appoints the kind, the degree, and the direction of our afflictions.

We are afflicted with disappointments, losses, and crosses. None are exempt. None can always escape, for “the Lord tries the righteous.” “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”

“He does not afflict willingly.” He only grieves us from necessity. He has fixed His end, which is to make us holy, and to conform us to the image of His Son; from this, He will not be diverted–but He will surely accomplish it.

In the afflictions which He sends, God aims at . . .
our deeper sanctification,
or our greater usefulness,
or simply at His own glory,
which is always linked with our good.

He therefore afflicts us–to exercise our graces; these would otherwise often lie dormant, become weak, fade, and wither.

God afflicts His children–to wean us from the world, to which we are too much attached, and would be more so, if it were not for trials, disappointments, and vexations.

God afflicts His children–to  embitter sin, which is the prolific root, on which every pain, grief and sorrow grows. 

God afflicts His children–to endear the Savior, who is our solace in sorrow, and will be our glorious deliverer from it. Never does Jesus appear so precious–as in the hours of trouble and trial.

God afflicts His children–to prevent our falling into temptation, which we would do more frequently, if we were not kept awake and watchful by our various sorrows.

God afflicts His children–to fit us for usefulness, for as the land must be ploughed, harrowed, and crushed–if it is to be fruitful and supply our needs; just so must we be tempted, tried, and troubled–if we are to be of much use to man, or to bring much glory to God.

God afflicts His children, to make us long for heaven–which we seldom do when all is pleasant, bright, and sunny below.

If God loves us with an infinite love;
if He has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son;
if He will make us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;
and if He will correct our faults and our follies
—He must afflict us!        —By James Smith, 1853

The word of God is full of Christ. He is the Sun of this divine system, the Fountain of its light and beauty. Every doctrine derives its substance from His person, every precept its force from His work, every promise its sweetness from His love. Is it not to be feared, that in the study of the Scriptures it is a much-forgotten truth, that they testify of Jesus? Are they not read, searched, and examined, with a mind too little intent upon adding to its wealth by an increased knowledge of His person, and character, and work? And thus it is we lower the character of the Bible. We may read it as a mere uninspired record; we may study it as a book of human literature. Its antiquity may interest us, its history may inform us, its philosophy may instruct us, its poetry may charm us; and thus, while skimming the surface of this Book of books, the glorious Christ, who is its substance, its subject, its sweetness, its worth- and but for whom there had been no Bible- has been deeply and darkly veiled from the eye.
But it is the office of the blessed and eternal Spirit to unfold, and so to glorify, Jesus in the Word. All that we spiritually and savingly learn of Him, through this revealed medium, is by the sole teaching of the Holy Spirit, opening up this word to the mind. He shows how all the luminous lines of Scripture truth emanate from, return to, and center in, Christ- how all the doctrines set forth the glory of His person, how all the promises are written in His heart’s blood, and how all the precepts are embodied in His life.   ( Octavius Winslow)