Preparations for Sufferings

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. - Romans 5:3
It is as much our interest as it is our duty to be awakened out of our pleasant but most pernicious drowsiness. Troubles will be so much more sinking and intolerable if they take us by surprise. Just as expectation spoils earthly comforts by sucking out much of its sweetness beforehand so that we find less in it when we come to the actual enjoyment, so the expectation of suffering eases much of the dread an...