Why God's Children Suffer

I was sitting at my desk today and picked up a very old tract I saved.  I'm not sure where I got it, probably my grandpa. I don't know who the author is. It's missing a few pages, but I saved it because I thought it was encouraging.  Here's some little pieces of that tract. Maybe it will encourage one of you going through a hard time.

"Lord, put me into the fire if you will; put me into the water if you think I need it; do anything you please, O Lord, only for Christ's sake, don't throw me into the scrapheap." 

"He may have a special job for you that requires a special preparation.  And if the testing time seems long, remember that He who permits the trial knows just how hot the furnace is, and just how long you need to continue in it."

"Doubtless Paul felt that his years in prison were a weary waste of time; but those grand epistles which he wrote during his hours of confinement have caused millions to thank God that he permitted Paul to be imprisoned."

"The gospel teaches that we are 'saved to serve'.  Oh, the pity of being a fruitless vine, a useless tool- so dull and clumsy that God cannot use us.  So lacking in sympathy and discernment and knowledge of God that we cannot  help the helpless or comfort the sorrowing."

"Dr. F. B. Meyer of London recently said, 'If no one for a few days write to me to tell me of some help received, if no one seems to be influenced by my life, I sit down and say, 'O God, has the time come to me when for some reason I am to be of no use - a castaway?' If then to be useless is such a misfortune, let us bravely meet adversity, knowing that if patiently borne, it will make us more and more meet for the Master's use."

"But what of the afflictions which come up on the aged, whose working days are almost over?  What about the faithful Christians who are sorely puzzled to reconcile their long agonies with God's goodness?  Perhaps God is giving them the finishing touches of grace and beauty, that they may the more fully reflect His image through the endless ages of eternity.  How little we realize what eternity means!"

"And if by years of patient suffering God can take the harshness out of my voice, and make it tones more pleasing to Him and more helpful to others, surely the time has been well spent."