What interest hath this empty world in me? and what is there in it that may seem so lovely, as to entice my desires and delight from thee, or make me loth to come away? When I look about me with a deliberate, undeceived eye, methinks this world is a howling wilderness, and most of the inhabitants are untamed, hideous monsters. All its beauty I can wink into blackness, and all its mirth I can think into sadness ; I can drown all its pleasures in a few penitent tears, and the wind of a sigh will scatter them away (650).Richard Baxter
About This Quote
When we look at the world around us, we see a lot of suffering, some of it extremely painful. But, some of us have a tendency to look at the suffering and think how beautiful it is. What a beautiful flower! What a beautiful sky! That suffering is beautiful! And maybe we’re right. We have been taught that suffering is bad, but there are times when suffering is beautiful.
In this quote from The Book of Margery Kempe, she describes suffering as what brings out the beauty of the world around her. In fact, suffering becomes so beautiful that she spends her whole life weeping over it. She knows that suffering will not last forever and she knows that one day she will be free from it.
But she also knows that she has to endure suffering now in order to be free of it later on.
Source: The Saints Everlasting Rest
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