Christian Books on Suffering: 15 Classics of Comfort in Trials
If you are suffering right now and want one book, read Horatius Bonar's The Night of Weeping. Bonar wrote it for believers who find the road rough, and he explains, gently and from Scripture, why a loving Father lets His children suffer and what He is doing through it. If you are low and can't say why, read Richard Sibbes' The Soul's Conflict. If you want something you can read a page of at a time, try F. B. Meyer's Cheer for Life's Pilgrimage.
The old Christian writers did not pretend suffering was small. Many of them buried children, lost their health, sat in prison or were driven from their pulpits. But they agreed on a few things. Nothing comes to a believer by accident; even the bitter things come through a Father's hands. God uses trouble to wean us from this world, to prove our faith, to purge our sin and to make us more like Christ. Christ suffered first, and He is with us in it. Complaining to God is allowed. Grumbling against Him is not. And the trial is short compared with the glory to come.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
2 Corinthians 4:17
If your sorrow is the death of someone you love, go to our guide to Christian books on grief. The fifteen books below are for every other kind of trial, all free to read in TheWay Library.
Start here
1. The Night of Weeping, by Horatius Bonar
Bonar writes as one of the family of the Man of Sorrows. He describes God's fatherly discipline, the different rods He uses, and what affliction is for: proving, purifying, waking us up, and making us ready for heaven. Its companion, The Morning of Joy, looks ahead to the end of the night.
God must have the heart; nay, and he must have it beating truly towards him.
The Night of Weeping, chapter 4
More of Bonar is in Horatius Bonar's books. Read The Night of Weeping.
2. Cheer for Life's Pilgrimage, by F. B. Meyer
Ten short addresses for Christians who feel the length of the road: God's statutes as songs on the way, the risen Christ on the shore, the soul "weaned" and quieted like a child, and Christ and pain. Each takes about ten minutes.
Be sure, if you are weaned from the breast of human comfort, you turn with invincible comfort to the heart of God.
Cheer for Life's Pilgrimage, chapter 7
Read Cheer for Life's Pilgrimage.
3. Twelve Sermons for the Troubled and Tried, by C. H. Spurgeon
Spurgeon chose these for people in trouble of body or soul: the despairing, the lost, the sick and the weary. The last, "Christ's Hospital," is on the Lord who heals the broken in heart. Spurgeon knew depression and pain himself, and it shows. Read Twelve Sermons for the Troubled and Tried.
When you are cast down
4. The Soul's Conflict and Victory over Itself, by Richard Sibbes
The Puritan classic on spiritual depression, built on Psalm 42, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" Sibbes teaches you to question your own soul, to tell good sorrow from bad, and to hope in God. He is tender with troubled consciences.
It is no less power to settle a peace in the soul, than to command the seas to be quiet.
The Soul's Conflict and Victory over Itself, chapter 5
5. Letters of Samuel Rutherford
Hundreds of letters from a Scottish minister, many written when he was banished from his parish. He writes to the sick, the bereaved and the persecuted, and he can hardly stop talking about the loveliness of Christ. Don't read it straight through. Open it anywhere.
Christ and His cross are not separable in this life; howbeit Christ and His cross part at heaven's door, for there is no houseroom for crosses in heaven.
Letters of Samuel Rutherford, To the Lady Rowallan
6. Cardiphonia, by John Newton
Letters of spiritual counsel by the author of "Amazing Grace," published without names. The letters to friends in trouble are wise and kind, and Newton never makes suffering sound easier than it is.
Nor would our graces grow, unless they were called out to exercise; the difficulties we meet with not only prove but strengthen the graces of the Spirit.
Cardiphonia, Three Letters to Mrs. H—
Why God allows it
7. The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, by Thomas Brooks
On Psalm 39:9, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it." Brooks explains what holy silence before God means and what it doesn't (it doesn't forbid prayer or tears), then answers ten objections a sufferer raises, including "God has hidden His face from me."
God's love is always like himself, unchangeable; his love is everlasting; it is a love that never decays, nor waxes cold.
The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod, objection 8
8. Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence, by John Flavel
Flavel teaches you to look back over your life and see God's hand: your birth, your family, your conversion, your work, your provision, your preservation and your afflictions. A slow, steadying book for anyone who wonders whether God is in control. Both Flavel and Brooks are in our guide to the best Puritan books. Read The Mystery of Providence.
9. The Story of Job, by Jessie Penn-Lewis
A devotional walk through Job, from the scenes in heaven through the friends' speeches to God's answer. Penn-Lewis shows God using Job's suffering to bring him to an end of himself and closer to God.
At every step of the life of faith in God, the soul has a choice before it, and it is always possible to choose the easier path rather than the path of affliction.
The Story of Job, chapter 17
10. Joseph: Beloved, Hated, Exalted, by F. B. Meyer
The pit, the false accusation, the prison, and the long wait before God raised him up. Meyer reads Joseph's story for everyone who is misunderstood and kept waiting, and shows God's timing at work in it. More of Meyer is in F. B. Meyer's books. Read Joseph.
In sickness and long trials
11. Starlight Through the Shadows, by Frances Ridley Havergal
Havergal planned a book of daily comfort for invalids out of her own sickness and sorrow, and died having written only these few readings. Short, gentle and personal.
What is hid in God's hand must be out of reach of Satan's.
Starlight Through the Shadows, chapter 10
Read Starlight Through the Shadows.
12. Searchings in the Silence, by George Matheson
Short meditations by the blind Scottish preacher who wrote "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go." He keeps returning to grief, God's silence and why God hides Himself, and he finds light in unexpected places.
I am travelling, not to age, but to youth — not from joy to peace, but from peace to joy.
Searchings in the Silence, chapter 57
Read Searchings in the Silence.
13. The Hidden Life, by J. R. Miller
Warm devotional chapters on the life hid with Christ in God: conquering circumstances you can't change, Christ's knowledge of us, contentment and unanswered prayer.
When we cannot change our conditions, we must conquer them through the help of Christ.
The Hidden Life, chapter 2
The fellowship of His sufferings
14. Sharing His Sufferings, by J. H. Jowett
Seven short meditations on Calvary as the school of the Christian life. Jowett asks whether we have left the cup of sacrifice untouched. One hour, and it will humble you.
The quality of our fellowship with the Lord is best revealed, not by our capacity for joy, but by our capacity for suffering.
Sharing His Sufferings, chapter 4
15. Fox's Book of Martyrs
The sufferings of Christians from the apostles and the Roman persecutions to the burnings in England under Queen Mary. It puts our own troubles in perspective, and the last words of the martyrs have strengthened believers for centuries.
Be of good cheer, Ridley; and play the man. We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England, as, I trust, will never be put out.
Fox's Book of Martyrs, chapter 12
A word on reading while you suffer
Pain makes long books hard. Begin with the short ones: Meyer, Havergal, Jowett, a single Rutherford letter. When you can think again, Sibbes, Brooks and Flavel will give you solid ground. Thomas Boston's The Crook in the Lot is a much-loved classic on affliction; it is in the library, though its text still has scanning errors.
Where to start
- In a trial now: Bonar's The Night of Weeping.
- Depressed or cast down: Sibbes, then Rutherford.
- Asking "why?": Brooks, then Flavel and The Story of Job.
- Ill or housebound: Havergal and Matheson.
More books are on the suffering and comfort topic page.