Persecutions Profitable.

Afflictions they most profitable are
To the beholder and the sufferer:
Bettering them both, but by a double strain,
The first by patience, and the last by pain.

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is known for his book of poems, "Hesperides," which includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time." His works are noted for their clarity, simplicity, and musical quality. Herrick was also a vicar of Dean Prior in Devon, despite being ejected during the English Civil War and later reinstated.

Robert Herrick

English

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Sufferance.

In the hope of ease to come,
Let's endure one martyrdom.

Robert Herrick

Persecutions Purify.

God strikes His Church, but 'tis to this intent,
To make, not mar her, by this punishment;
So where He gives the bitter pills, be sure
'Tis not to poison, but to make thee pure.

Robert Herrick

Satisfaction For Suffering

For all our works a recompence is sure;
'Tis sweet to think on what was hard t'endure.

Robert Herrick

Pain Ends In Pleasure.

Afflictions bring us joy in times to come,
When sins, by stripes, to us grow wearisome.

Robert Herrick

Sufferings.

We merit all we suffer, and by far
More stripes than God lays on the sufferer.

Robert Herrick

Pain And Pleasure.

God suffers not His saints and servants dear
To have continual pain or pleasure here;
But look how night succeeds the day, so He
Gives them by turns their grief and jollity.

Robert Herrick