Book: The Hidden Smile of God

The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd

by John Piper

A Brief and Scattered Summary/Review

• John Bunyan

• Bunyan's sufferings: Early death of his mother and sister, military draft as a teenager, first child born blind, depression and darkness, death of his first wife, twelve year imprisonment, constant stress of imminent persecution, final sickness and death far from those he loved.

• Imprisoned for twelve years for refusing to go by the Book of Common Prayer against his conscience (and the consciences of many Puritans).

• He was completely uneducated but loved the Word so deeply and spoke it so earnestly that he became a famous preacher (though serving a small congregation about about 100 his whole life).

• "He had studied our Authorized Version . . . Till his whole being was saturated with Scripture; and though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim's Progress--that sweetest of all prose poems--without continually making us feel and say, "Why, this man is a living Bible!" Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God." - CH Spurgeon (77).

• What did Bunyan's suffering do?

• Confirmed him in his calling as a writer, especially for the afflicted church. "The smell of affliction was on most of what Bunyan wrote."

• The Pilgrim's Progress

• Seasonable Counsel, Advice to Sufferers

• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

• Etc.

• Deepened his love for his flock and gave his pastoral labor the fragrance of eternity.

• Opened his understanding to the truth that the Christian life is hard and that following Jesus means having the wind in your face.

• Commenting on John 15:2 "It is the will of God, that they that go to heaven should go thither hardly or with difficulty. The righteous shall scarcely be saved. That is, they shall, but yet with great difficulty, that it may be the sweeter" (64).

• Strengthened his assurance that God is sovereign over all the afflictions of his people and will bring them safely home.

• "We are apt to overshoot, in the days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher, and more strong than we find we be, when the trying day is upon us. . . . We could not live without such turnings of the hand of God upon us. We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our seasonable winters. It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there" (72).

• Deepened in him a confidence in the Bible as the Word of God and a passion for biblical exposition as the key to perseverance.

• "I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now [in prison]" (40).

• A summary of his life in a quote: "I was made to see that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon everything that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. The second was, to live upon God that is invisible" (From Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan, p. 40).

• William Cowper

• Suffered deep depression his whole life, even (and no less severely) after he came to know God.

• Wrote much poetry and many hymns, including "God Moves In A Mysterious Way" describing God's sovereignty in our suffering and "There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood" extolling the efficacy and sufficiency of the freely offered blood of Christ.    

• Applications:

• We must distrust the certainties of despair.

• We must love our children dearly.

• We must despair not of the despairing.

• We must beware of excessive introspection and ask God for the gift of "self-forgetfulness."

• Instead of striving for escape from the reality of  the world, we should strive to penetrate the darkness and dirt of this world with the light of Jesus.

• We need to see evil and despair and suffering as realities which affect people deeply.

• We need to see the hope of Jesus and communicate this unfailingly to the discouraged around and among us. "Never cease to sing the Gospel to the Deaf."

• David Brainerd

• Lived only 29 years, 8 as a believer, but has had an immense impact on believers of every generation since.

• Died of tuberculosis as a missionary to Indians in the "howling wilderness" of New England.

• Like Cowper, he suffered frequently from intense depression (characterized often by feelings of numbness). He also suffered much physically, both with disease and want of proper food, provisions, etc. Yet he persisted faithfully in ministry and in his pursuit of God's glory through personal holiness and evangelical witness.

• He struggled often to feel compassion toward those he evangelized.

• He found his comfort and joy in God.

• "Such fatigues and hardship as these serve to wean me more from the earth; and, I trust, will make heaven the sweeter. Formerly, when I was thus exposed to cold, rain, etc., I was ready to please myself with the thoughts of enjoying a comfortable house, a warm fire, and other outward comforts; but now these have less place in my heart (through the grace of God) and my eye is more to God for comfort. In this world I expect tribulation; and it does not now, as formerly, appear strange to me; I don't in such seasons of difficulty flatter myself that it will be better hereafter; but rather think how much worse it might be; how much greater trials others of God's children have endured; and how much greater are yet perhaps reserved for me. Blessed be God that he makes [is] the comfort to me, under my sharpest trials; and scarce ever lets these thoughts be attended with terror or melancholy; but they are attended frequently with great joy" (139-140).

• He was characterized by a persistent, all-encompassing desire to know God truly and love him duly (expressed through frequent fasting, prayer, and writing on "divine subjects"). "When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of him the more insatiable, and my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable. . . . Oh, for holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God. . . . Oh, that I might never loiter on my heavenly journey!" (147).

• "Oh, how sweet it is to be spent and worn out for God!" (148)

• Brainerd had an incredible impact on Jonathan Edwards, Henry Martyn, William Carey, Jim Elliot, etc. and thereby on many thousands of others. This was the fruit of his affliction.

Conclusion

"The path to everlasting joy in God leads up Hill Difficulty, with deep and joyful worship, into an unreached world of perishing sinners, where the repentance of one soul sets the angels of God to singing. This is a fruit of affliction that will last forever and multiply all your joys in Christ" (170).

Reading about the lives of Bunyan, Cowper, and Brainerd gives me hope as well as conviction; hope, that ordinary people who struggle and suffer yet have faith in a matchless, glorious God will not only be sustained but used in mighty ways by his gracious providence. And conviction, that my desire to know and experience God's glory is shriveled and narrow; it is nowhere near proportionate to the "surpassing worth" and unspeakable greatness, joy, pleasure, perfection of the reality of who God is in the face of Jesus Christ.

A Prayer

May God grant me to suffer for his sake, and to do it with joy, looking not to the comforts of this world but to him alone as my solace. And may he, through every trial I face, display his preciousness, and increase my desire for his glory--both the experience of his excellency and the making known of it to this dark, despairing world. To God alone be the glory, forever and ever.

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs

And works His sov’reign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flow’r.

Blind unbelief is sure to err

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain.