Even sorrow is in some mysterious way linked with joy and associated with tenderness.

John Bunyan once said how, "if it were lawful, he could even pray for greater trouble, for the greater comfort's sake." When surprise was expressed at the patience of a poor Arabian woman under heavy affliction, she said, "When we look on God's face we do not feel His hand." Suffering is doubtless as divinely appointed as joy, while it is much more influential as a discipline of character.

It chastens and sweetens the nature, teaches patience and resignation, and promotes the deepest as well as the most exalted thought.

[2112] "The best of men That e'er wore earth about Him was a sufferer; A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit The first true gentleman that ever breathed." [2113] Suffering may be the appointed means by which the highest nature of man is to be disciplined and developed.

Assuming happiness to be the end of being, sorrow may be the indispensable condition through which it is to be reached.