or glory, as
Paul teaches (1 Cor 15, 41), yet all will share the same eternal
happiness and joy; there will be one glory for all, for we shall all
be the children of God.

15. Now the first point of consolation is that we turn our backs upon
all suffering, saying: "What is all my pain, though it were tenfold
greater, compared to the eternal life unto which I am baptized, to
which I am called? My sufferings are not worthy to be so termed in
connection with the exceeding glory to be revealed in me." Paul
magnifies the future glory to make the temporal sufferings the more
insignificant. Then follows:

"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
revealing [manifestation] of the sons of God. For the creation was
subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who
subjected it, in hope: [For the creature was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in
hope;]"

16. Here is the second point of consolation. Paul holds up as an
example to us the condition of the whole creation. He exhorts us to
endure patiently, as the creature does, all the violence and
injustice we suffer from the devil and the world, and to comfort
ourselves with the hope of future redemption. Remarkable doctrine
this, unlike anything elsewhere found in the Scriptures, that heaven
and earth, sun, moon and stars, leaf and blade, every living thing,
waits with sighing and groaning for the revelation of our glory.

THE TRAVAIL OF CREATION.

17. Such sighing and agony of the creature is not audible to me, nor
is it to you. But Paul tells us he sees and hears it, not expressed
by one creature alone, but by all God has made. What does he mean?
What is the sighing and longing of creation? It is not that annually
the leaves wither and the fruits fall and decay: God purposes that
every year new fruits shall grow; he decrees the shattering of the
fallen tree. But Paul refers to the creature's unwilling subjection
to the ungodly; "subject to vanity," he phrases it.

For instance, the blessed sun, most glorious of created things,
serves the small minority of the godly, but where it shines on one
godly man it must shine on thousands and thousands of knaves, such as
enemies of God, blasphemers, persecutors, with whom the world is
filled; also murderers, robbers, thieves, adulterers. To these it
must minister in all their ungodliness and wickedness, permitting its
pure and glorious inf