Of the uses of adversity
1. It is good for us that we sometimes have sorrows and adversities,
for they often make a man lay to heart that he is only a stranger
and sojourner, and may not put his trust in any worldly thing.
It is good that we sometimes endure contradictions, and are
hardly and unfairly judged, when we do and mean what is good.
For these things help us to be humble, and shield us from
vain-glory. For then we seek the more earnestly the witness of
God, when men speak evil of us falsely, and give us no credit for
good.
2. Therefore ought a man to rest wholly upon God, so that he
need not seek much comfort at the hand of men. When a man who
fears God is afflicted or tried or oppressed with evil
thoughts, then he sees that God is the more necessary unto him,
since without God he can do no good thing. Then he is heavy of
heart, he groans, he cries out for the very disquietness of
his heart. Then he grows weary of life, and would fain depart
and be with Christ. By all this he is taught that in the world
there can be no perfect security or fullness of peace.
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