After you have suffered a while'

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"But the God of all grace, who has called us unto 
His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you  have 
suffered a while—make you perfect, establish, 
strengthen, settle you." 1 Peter 5:10

There is no divine establishment, no spiritual 
strength, no solid settlement—except by suffering. 
But after the soul has suffered, after it has felt 
God's chastising hand, the effect is . . .
to perfect,
to establish,
to strengthen,
and to settle it.

By suffering, a man becomes settled into a solemn 
conviction of the character of Jehovah as revealed 
in the Scripture, and in a measure made experimentally 
manifest in his conscience. He is settled in the persuasion 
that "all things work together for good to those who love 
God, and are the called according to His purpose"—in the 
firm conviction that everything comes to pass according 
to God's eternal purpose—and are all tending to the good 
of the Church, and to God's eternal glory.

His soul, too, is settled down into a deep persuasion of 
the misery, wretchedness, and emptiness of the creature; 
into the conviction that the world is but a shadow—and 
that the things of time and sense are but bubbles that 
burst the moment they are grasped—that of all things 
sin is most to be dreaded—and the favour of God above

all things most to be coveted—that nothing is really worth 
knowing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified—that all 
things are passing away—and that he himself is rapidly 
hurrying down the stream of life, and into the boundless 
ocean of eternity. 

Thus he becomes settled in a knowledge of the truth, 
and his soul remains at anchor, looking to the Lord to 
preserve him here, and bring him in peace and safety 
to his eternal home.

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