The Christian is enabled to rejoice greatly, even when he is grieved by manifold trials. He rejoices and grieves at the same time. He is a mass of contradictions. He is weak, yet strong; has no righteousness, yet is divinely righteous; has no strength, yet is invincible; a worm, yet threshes mountains (Isaiah 41: 14-15); poor, yet making many rich; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Joy and grief fill his heart at the same time, so that it is possible that he may ‘receive the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost’ (1 Thess. 1:6).
~Robert Murray M’Cheyne
from a sermon entitled Rejoicing in Affliction
