Ashton Oxenden

Poor weary sufferer, long have you perhaps occupied this sick-room. Your little world has for many weeks or months been contained within the walls of your chamber. Like an imprisoned bird, your wings are clipped, and you are still forbidden to rove beyond your narrow cage. Lonely days and wearisome months are appointed you.

Be it so. Since it is God’s will, it is and must be well. “Even so, Father, for so it seems good in your sight.”

Why has God sent you this long illness? He does not wish to weary you. He takes no pleasure in your sufferings. Does He not love you? And yet He has brought you into this state. Ah, is it not because He loves you, that He keeps you in it week after week?

Like a Father, He is chastening you, that you may be thoroughly weaned from the world, and may be made partaker of His holiness. A short affliction would not, in your case, accomplish the gracious work which He purposes to do; and so He lengthens out your trial. And, depend upon it, the day will soon come, when you will see that not one hour too long have you been kept here, and not one pain too many have you been called to bear. In your cup of suffering every drop has been carefully measured out by Him who cares for you.

Be content then to lie passive in your Father’s hands. Instead of desiring that His chastening rod may be removed one moment before the time, rather ask that He will give you grace to bear your sufferings meekly, and that He will fully accomplish His great work in you.

With regard to prayer, order and regularity are never more valuable than in a lengthened illness. And to prayer forget not to add the delightful work of praise. But, you may say, surely a prolonged time of sickness, and perhaps of suffering also, can hardly be a time for praise? Yes, it may be, and it should be. God is good to all, and we may thank Him for His goodness. Whom He loves He chastens; therefore thank Him for His love to you.

It often happens, as a Christian writer observes, that “when the heart is torpid and yields not to the action of prayer, it will begin to thaw with the warm and genial exercise of praise. For how much is there to kindle the heart in the very thought of praise! It is the pious exercise of Heaven. Nature is offering it unceasingly. The whole creation sends up one grand chorus of praise to the Throne of God. Then join in with your feeble voice. Let some note of thankfulness be sounded, even in the chamber of sickness.

So too with regard to your Bible-reading. Not only let the study of God’s Word be your chief employment, but read it on some fixed plan. Do not turn to it merely when you happen to be in the mood, or pitch upon a chapter at random, but read it according to some rule.

For instance, you may take some Book out of the Old Testament in the morning, and read it through in order, and one out of the New Testament in the evening. Thus you will get to know much of the Bible; and you will take an interest in it, which you never felt before.

Let your Bible-reading be as one of your regular meals, which you cannot do without. Seek that your soul may be fed and nourished by it. “Your word have I esteemed (says David) more than my necessary food.” Above all, whenever you open the Bible, lift up your heart for the teaching of the Holy Spirit; for without it all your reading will be in vain.

There is one thought which often distresses a confirmed invalid. I mean the thought that he is leading a comparatively useless life. Now, do not imagine that you must needs be useless, even though you may be stretched upon a sick-bed. Depend upon it, if God has a work for you to do for Him, He can enable you to do it wherever He places you. And undoubtedly He has a work for you to do, prisoner as you are.

A Christian writer observes, “It may be God’s will that our days may be passed upon a weary couch of pain — but still we need not be deprived of the heavenly joy of ministering. While a head to think, and a heart to care, are left to us, we may be planning for the spiritual welfare of some needy soul, and watering our plans with our prayers.”

You may interest yourself in others, and do little acts of kindness towards them. You may have an alms-bag, or a missionary-box, by your bedside, and so collect little sums from those who visit you. You may speak a word in season, or you may let the light of your Christian example shine, so that all who come near you may see what Jesus is doing for you. You can pray for your fellow-men, whom you can reach by no other means. And who can tell what blessings you may bring down upon them by your earnest intercessions? And after all, a suffering child of God upon his sick-bed glorifies Him as much, by patient submission and resignation — as one actually engaged in more direct work for God.

Then, dear Friend, believe that your life, in this solitary sick-room, may be a very blessed life, a very peaceful life, yes, and a very useful life too. And truly, if you are Christ’s servant, you may cheer yourself with the happy thought, that when a few more suffering days and restless nights are past, and a few more trials are undergone, then you will be beyond the reach of suffering, and enjoy that “rest which remains for the people of God.”