Pain Ends In 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.

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

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

God ne'er afflicts us more than our desert,
Though He may seem to overact His part:
Sometimes He strikes us more than flesh can bear;
But yet still less than grace can suffer here.

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.

That happiness does still the longest thrive,
Where joys and griefs have turns alternative.