I. Affliction acts as a dyke against the overflow of evil; it incessantly restrains and thrusts it back. Sin finds its limit in suffering; passion strikes against pain as a fatal bourne, where it perishes; lust is quenched in disgust; and death is there to say to the raging waves of our dissolute passions, "Thus far shall ye go and no farther." Thus far; namely, to that gravestone against which evil always dashes itself at last.
II. Suffering is not a blessing simply because it acts as a restraint; but also, and especially, because it acts as a preparative. It is a bridle, but also a spur, urging us towards the Cross, (1) An infinite suffering, an unlimited obedience, such was the Cross. At this cost heaven and earth were reconciled, and salvation was consummated. But it was in our name that the great work of that hour of atonement was performed, and we can derive benefit from it only as we ratify it. He only will be saved who unites himself to Christ, not with a view of offering again a sacrifice which was perfected in itself, but in order to make it his own by an earnest acceptance and a living faith. Grace employs every means to bring us to this, and of all conceivable means none can be more efficacious than suffering. Hence the important part which it plays in the work of our personal redemption. (2) Thus suffering, under the influence of grace, fills up the infinite distance between man and the Cross. Through the direct action of grace, suffering had prepared the way for Christ in the old world, by attacking not merely the individual but also the lost race of men, whom it had mercilessly and unceasingly pursued from religion to religion, from illusion to illusion; and it was through a wasted world, reduced to the condition of a desert, that the road was made which was to lead to Him. Ever since the Redeemer came among men, and called to them from His Cross, suffering has been His great prophet and forerunner; but suffering modified, mingled with blessing, as befits a pardoned world, but yet traversing the earth with the axe of John the Baptist. We must recognise even in its most distressing manifestations the infinite love which seeks to save our souls at all costs.
E. De Pressense. The Mystery of Suffering, p.34.
References: Proverbs 3:11; Proverbs 3:12. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 86; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 126; R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 88.