Spurgeon on Pain: “The Best and the Kindest Thing…”

I am reading, as a part of my personal devotional set, the “Letters of Charles Haddon Spurgeon” compiled by Iain Murray. The letters that I am currently reading (as of 2-27-20) are about Spurgeon’s illnesses and trials. Spurgeon’s ailments were so great that, according to the footnote on page 166, Spurgeon was out of his pulpit for approximately 1/3 of his ministry during his last 22 years due to illness and affliction of various kinds. In the particular letter that I want to quote now, he is dealing with a wide array of physical attacks. He writes from the Hotel Meurice in Paris on Friday, March 9, 1877 to his congregation at the Metropolitan Tabernacle:

“You will share in the bitter disappointment which has befallen me, and will sorrow in my sorrow…I travelled [sic] home in great pain until I reached this city, and now since Sunday I have been unable to move. Rheumatic pains seemed to paralyse [sic] the muscles, and I cannot stand. This is not what I looked for, and is unutterably painful to me. Away from wife and home, I have had to spend sleepless nights in fierce anguish…” (pg. 166, the bold is my emphasis).

What is our reaction to having any sort of “great pain”? What is our response to being “unable to move”? When “rheumatic pains” “paralyse” [sic] our muscles to the point that we “cannot stand,” what then is our spiritual state? When we are in a state of unutterable pain and spending “sleepless nights in fierce anguish,” how do we view God then? Do we get angry at God and cry out to Him about how unjust it is that we are suffering in this way? Do we question whether God even exists? Do we question, at least, God’s goodness for allowing us to suffer like this? Do we get bitter towards God and distant from Him because of the trials that are coming at us, one after another? Again, what is our response towards God whenever fierce trials of any sort come our way? Even more stark, what was Spurgeon’s response to his own pain? Did he give up? Did he quit the ministry? Did Spurgeon begin to list out for God all that he was doing for Him and plead his case for God to alleviate his suffering? Did Spurgeon pout or gripe in an excessive way? Certainly, Spurgeon acknowledged that he was in great pain, and that is quite alright. We must not ignore our pain or pretend that it’s not there. In fact, to ignore our pain or pretend it’s not there is to, possibly, lessen its sanctifying effects on us. Look at what Spurgeon said about God right in the throes of his own trials:

“…I desire publicly to express my gratitude to my heavenly Father for it all. I cannot see any good in it, nor perceive the love that ordained it; but I am sure my Lord has done for me the best and kindest thing possible, and so I would say, and do say, Bless the Lord, O my soul” (pg. 166, the bold is my emphasis).

This type of thinking simply startles the mind. Who thanks God for gout or for Rheumatoid arthritis? Who shows gratitude to God for sleepless nights in fierce anguish? Who can see the kindness of God in deep physical pain and misery? Who sees unutterable pain as the “best…thing possible” for him? Who is it that will lay in a sick bed, hurting all over, irritable over no sleep, and sing “Bless the Lord, O my soul”? Obviously, Spurgeon did! The question for us is, “Will we do the same?” Now, the objection may arise about Spurgeon’s theology and some may claim that God doesn’t send sickness and that Jesus only healed people but never afflicted others, etc. Certainly, God does heal and we should pray for healing; Jesus was gracious and merciful to many of the sick in His day (and today!), but there is no promise of a life of perfect health and we can see several scriptures where God sends sicknesses to glorify Himself (see the following articles on this matter of God’s Sovereignty and Sickness: Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here).

But for the moment let us assume the theology of Charles Spurgeon. Given God’s Sovereignty over all, doesn’t this help us more, rather than less, in praising and worshiping God, in the midst of our hardest trials? If we believed that God was in control of our trials, and that He sent them from His wise hand of love and grace, doesn’t that ease the burden of the trial more so than saying that He had nothing at all to do with it? If God is not in control of everything and if He is not allowing (sending or allowing is practically the same thought with an Almighty God) our various ailments, then how is it that God can redeem or have a purpose for that which He has not caused (contra Romans 8:28). There are still some perplexing questions, no doubt, with this view; but there are also an equal number of questions for the view that God always heals and never sends/allows a sickness/trial as well! Also, if we look at the Scriptures that support a view like Spurgeon’s, then it will be more difficult to square a theology opposite of this view with the Bible. I cannot help but wonder how much stronger, how much more encouraged, and how much more supported God’s people would be if we were to fully and genuinely embrace the Almighty, Loving, and All-Wise Sovereign God in the middle of our deepest, darkest trials? Would we not sing like Paul and Silas (see Acts 16) and say, along with Job, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

Does Any of this mean that we Don’t pray for healing or deliverance from our trials? Certainly not! The Bible is full of prayers for deliverance (see the Psalms, for example). However, we must ultimately rest in the wisdom and love of God should He choose not to deliver us from our difficulties. We must choose to believe, along with Paul, that His grace will be sufficient for us in our trials (2 Corinthians 12) and that He is doing something of an eternal value during our temporal struggle (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).