Enduring to the End – Sunday, May 25, 1980
To endure to the end. . . that is the charge given us throughout the Scriptures. As we pause to honor those who have already endured to the end, the importance of this instruction rings clear.
Poet John Milton wrote, “who best can suffer, best can do.”1 Milton’s greatest works were produced during that period of life in which he suffered most—when he was stricken with blindness. Even the loss of physical well-being does not keep courageous men from zealously pursuing their struggle of life.
And so as we honor those who have endured, let us also acknowledge those who are enduring, especially those who carry the heavy burden of broken health.
Illness often moves us into a realm of introspection, of self-analysis. We think soberly about our past and our future—perhaps for the first time. We learn the truth of the statement that it is not ease and comfort that tries men and brings out the best in them, so much as trial and difficulty.
Those with lingering illnesses have many hours to spend alone. But these hours can be used to advantage. As Samuel Smiles once wrote, “It is in solitude that the passion for spiritual perfection best nurses itself. The soul communes with itself in loneliness until its energy often becomes intense.”2
The soul also communes with God. Certainly, belief in God is not meant to provide an escape from the hard realities of life, but it does fortify the spirit of man to face difficulty when it comes.
Of course, even the most devout person may occasionally have doubts. But one difference between the believer and the nonbeliever is that the believer soon regains the calm, inner strength so necessary for times of trial.
There is much in life that we cannot comprehend, and though we may not understand the full meaning of the trials through which even the best must pass, we must have faith in the Master’s grand design. . . of which our individual lives form a small part. We must do as He asked. We must have the faith to endure to the end. Surely those who have endured to the end, who have gone ahead, are shouting to us words of encouragement.
1 Samuel Smiles, “The Discipline of Experience,” Character, AL. Burt Company, p. 364.
2 Samuel Smiles, “The Discipline of Experience,” Character, A.L Burt Company, p. 359.
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May 25, 1980
Broadcast Number 2,649