I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.

I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.

I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? 2 Corinthains 11:23-29

Ok, Paul, you win. That is quite a list. One gets exhausted just reading it. There is no question that servants of God are not given a free pass from being in harms way. The "cushy life" seems antithetical. Rather, by being ambassadors for Christ, it seems that the likelyhood of trials and testings increases.

John Paton had four nightmarish years on the island of Tanna in the South Seas. His wife and infant son were buried there. He had ignomiously been chased off the island by what could best be termed savages, fleeing for his very life. After some fund raising in Australia, he was encouraged to return to Scotland, and raise further support for "stage two" of his mission.

At the time of his arrival, Scotland was experiencing a harsh winter, and the trip from Edinburgh to Thurso, he took a mail coach. The inside seats were occupied, so he sat outside. Brrr...

"The cold was intense, and one of my feet got bitten by the frost. The storm detained me nearly a week at Thruso, but feeing did not return to the foot."

"We started, in a lull, by steamer for Stromness; but the storm burst again, all were ordered below; but the storm, and hatches and doors made fast. The passengers were mostly very rough, the place was foul with whisky and tobacco. I appealed to the Captain to let me crouch somewhere on deak and hold on as best I could."

"He shouted, 'I dare not! You'll be washed overboard.' On seeing my appealing look, he relented, directed his men to fasten a tarpaulin over me, and lash it and me to the mast, and there I lay till we reached Stromness."

"The sea broke heavily and dangerously over the vessel. But the Captain, finding shelter for several hours under the lee of a headland, saved both the ship and the passengers."

"When at last we landed, my foot was so benumbed and painful that I could move a step only with greatest agony. Two meetings, however, were in some kind of way conducted; but the projected visit to Dngwall and other places had to be renounced, the snow lying too deep for any conveyance to carry, and my foot crying aloud for treatment and skill."

Yikes! A doctor who cared for him said that he had never seen any part of the human body so dead to feeling on a live and healthy person! It took months to fully recover, but the toe survived. John Paton remarked...

"I feel myself crooning over the graphic words of the Greatest Missionary, 'I bear about in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.'

Samuel Rutherford, the much-tried Scottish pastor of the 1600's, saw difficulties (banished from his congregation) as part of what we "signed up for:

"It cost Christ and all his followers sharp showers and hot sweats ere' they win to the top of the mountain. But still our soft nature would have heaven coming to our bedside when we are sleeping, and lying down with us, that we might go to heaven in warm clothes; but all that came there found wet feet by the way, and sharp storms that did take the hide off their face, and found to's and fro's, and up's and down's, and many enemies by the way."

As the hymnwriter asks....

Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?

Sure I must fight if I would reign
Increase my courage Lord
I'll bear the toil, enfue the pain
Supported by Thy word

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.; give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness through all generations. Psalm 100:4-5

If murmuring were a duty, some saints would never sin, and if mourning were commanded by God they would certainly be saved by works, for they are always sorrowing, and so they would keep his law. 

Many of the saints of God are as mournful as if they were captives in Babylon, for their life is spent in tears and sighing. They will not chant the joyous psalm of praise, and if there be any that require of them a song, they reply, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"

But, my brethren, we are not captives in Babylon; we do not sit down to weep by Babel's streams; "the Lord has broken our captivity, he has brought us up out of the house of our bondage. We are freemen; we are not slaves; we are not sold into the hand of cruel taskmasters, but we that have believed do enter into rest:"

Moses could not give rest to Israel; he could bring them to Jordan, but across the stream he could not conduct them; Joshua alone could lead them into the lot of their inheritance, and our Joshua, our Jesus, has led us into the land of promise.

He has brought us into a land which the Lord our God thinks on; a land of hills and valleys; a land that flows with milk and honey; and though the Canaanites still be in the land, and plague us full sore, yet is it all our own, and he has said to us:

"All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's:" 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.

We are not, I say, captives, sold under sin; we are a people who sit every man under his own vine and his own fig-tree, none making us afraid. We dwell in "a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks:"

We have come unto Zion, the city of our solemnities, and the mourning of Babylon is not suitable to the palace of the great King, which is beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth.

"Let us serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with singing:" Psalm 100:2.

Many of God's people live as if their God were dead.

Their conduct would be quite consistent....

if the promises were not yea and amen;
if God were a faithless God.
If Christ were not a perfect Redeemer;
if the Word of God might after all turn out to be untrue;
if he had not power to keep his people, and
if he had not love enough with which to hold them even to the end...

then might they give way to mourning and to despair; then might they cover their heads with ashes, and wrap their loins about with sackcloth.

But while God is Jehovah, just and true;
while his promises stand as fast as the eternal mountians;
while the heart of Jesus is true to his spouse;
while the arm of God is unpalsied, and his eye undimmed;
while his covenant and his oath are unbroken and unchanged....

it is not comely, it is not seemly for the upright to go mourning all their days.

Children of God, refrain yourselves from weeping, and make a joyful noise unto the Rock of your salvation; let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

C. H. Spurgeon MAGNIFICAT