The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd (The Swans Are Not Silent, 2) (The Swans Are Not Silent, 2)

Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1581342470
Manufacturer: Crossway Books
Average Customer Review: (From 9 total reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description:
We read their stories and wonder how they endured. How does one survive twelve years in a dank prison cell? How does one survive month after month of a depression so debilitating that death seems the only hope? How does one endure tuberculosis? Or cancer, or emptiness, or death, or loneliness, or divorce? Whatever the trial may be, how does one endure without the soul shriveling up and blowing away with the breeze?

In the lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd, we find the strength of soul that not only endures hardship, but honors God in the midst of it. The Giver and Sustainer of life enabled them to worship through all their suffering. That’s why their affliction bore so much fruit. The story of their suffering, their perseverance, and their passion is one that can inspire the same hunger for the supremacy of God in your life.

John Piper invites you to read their stories, consider their lives, and be encouraged that no labor and no suffering in the path of Christian obedience is ever in vain. Even the bleak hill of Golgotha was a skull with a frown of affliction on its face. But behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.

Customer Reviews

Three Suffering Swans by Rebecca Stark
This is the second book in the series The Swans are Not Silent. Like the other books in the series, it contains three of Piper’s biographical sermons on historical Christians. In this case, those featured are John Bunyan, William Cowper and David Brainerd, three men who endured great suffering during their lives, and whose suffering bore fruit, both in their own times and onward through history to the present day. Piper’s purpose in telling the stories of these men’s lives and expounding on them is so that the story of “how they suffered, how they endured, and how it bore fruit will inspire in [the reader] that same radical Christian life, God-centered worship, and Christ-exalting mission.”

The first section is on the life of John Bunyan, best known for writing The Pilgrim’s Progress, one of the best-selling books of all times, although he wrote at least fifty-seven other books. Bunyan was a “brasyer”, a tinker who became a nonconformist preacher. He suffered in many ways throughout his life, including spending 12 years in jail away from his wife and children for refusing to stop preaching. Bunyan’s imprisonment drove him to God’s word, and developed in him a keen sense of the presence of Christ. Hie suffering and what he wrote about suffering in the life of the Christian can teach us much about following Christ in difficult times.

Next up is William Cowper, who suffered from from depression and insanity, and yet left behind marvelous hymns of God’s goodness that we still sing two hundred years later. He is proof of the truth of one of his most famous hymns, God Moves in a Mysterious Way His Wonders to Perform.

And then there’s David Brainerd. Brainerd was a young missionary to the Indians in the 1700s who died at aged 29 of tuberculosis, following several years of illness. We remember him because of his journal, which has inspired many others to missionary service, including William Carey and Jim Elliot.

The lives of these three men, Piper says, are like pebbles dropped into a pond: “God has breathed on the waters and made their ripple into waves. And now the parched places of our lives are watered with the memories of sustaining grace.”

This is a wonderfully inspirational book. It’s not a long book, and I expected to finish it in a snap, but things didn’t work out that way because of the richness of the stories. Don’t take this to mean that The Hidden Smile of God is a difficult book. I’d call it an easy read, but one worth pondering as it’s read.

God’s provision through suffering by Trent Arwine
This book is a great encouragement, especially for any depressed or discouraged Christian. It’s good to be reminded that God causes all things to work together for good for those that love Him… and that He can work through us, even through depression. “Hallelujah! What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a Friend”

Yes, They Carried Their Crosses Well by J. Schoeman
In the second part of Piper’s eulogies to great men of the Faith, in ‘The Swans Are Not Silent’ series, we get to meet Bunyan, Cowper (pronounced Cooper) and Brainerd.

The introduction to the book brings us to an important theological aspect in the Christian life: the fruit of affliction. It is by these means of trials and tests, that God shapes the character of the lives of men and women, who lay claim to being Christ’s. The cost of discipleship is ravaging, demanding, painful and yet, brings much glory to God, only if we continue to see His good in our circumstances.

Of this school, John Bunyan was an unchallenged leader. Most probably the most famous of Puritan preachers and pastors, the Bedford tinker grew in stature and favor with the English folk, which extends right to this day. Those that say Bunyan only had to agree to not preaching without a licence, at no other cost was his gaol term enforced, fail to know those days. As Piper explains, they were the Non-Conformists, who refused to bow the knee to the Church of England with her popish traditions and catholic conventions. If you read Bunyan’s sermons, you will readily see the sort of principle he disagreed with. For example, that they had a Common Prayer Book, and for every circumstance, Holy Day, or gathering, they were required to pray from it word-for-word. NO! says Bunyan, for ‘I will pray by the Spirit and by my understanding!’ 1 Cor 14:15

What really touched my heart was that Bunyan confessed he loved his oldest daughter most. Born blind from birth, she was his weak spot. During the twelve years imprisonment when she had occasion to visit with his second wife, he claims that it was extremely hard to part with her. A fathers heart! If ever he needed an excuse to conform and be released from prison, she was there. Yet God graciously supplied in His means of grace to Bunyan.

Quote: ‘Let me beg of thee, that thou wilt not be offended either with God, or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not with God, for He doth nothing without a cause, nor with men, for…they are the servants of God to thee for good. Take therefore what comes to thee from God by them, thankfully.’

It were as if Bunyan saw Christ in his tormentors, and heard Christ plead with him to transfer their guilt, their actions, onto Christ, and thus be free to love them.

Bunyan is with reason well-loved.

Cowper was a hymnist and could rise above his melancholy to deliver the most beautiful odes of praise to God. Suffering from depression, he regularly had to keep the foes of darkness at bay, and dug deeply from the wells of grace to bring forth his fruit, much of which is still well-known and in use today.

Brainerd was made public by Jonathan Edwards, the great American theologian. Brainerd was a missionary who lived in the most depriving of conditions amongst the Indians he was doing missionary work to. He also had ailments and was ill for most of the time, yet continued to thank God for every breath and word he was able to bring. God sustained him and then He mercifully took him away, at a relatively young age. Missionaries who are pitted against tests, deaths of various kinds, always refer to Brainerd’s work for exhortation.

This is a remarkable book in the sense that these men were principled and knew not the easy way out. They continued to live out their witness, knowing that it was the Holy Spirit at work in their life’s calling, despite the odds being stacked against them. So in good times and tough, God was sovereignly ruling in their lives.

Solemn and awe-inspiring.

One of my favorite books by W. Danna
If you are reading this, you really need to read this book. Have you suffered affliction? There is JOY in this book. As I read about David Brainerd, I couldn’t help praying “Lord change me.” There is a sense of healing in this book as God really undertands our suffering and loves us.This book left the image in my mind of David Brainerd riding his horse in the rain through the woods, throwing up blood from TB in a mission to share the gospel to the Indians. He was rejected by the seminary. There was nothing easy about his life. This is a book to read over and over. It will bring healing and joy to you in your affliction.

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Tags: affliction, bible reference, book, christian biographies-memoirs, christian history, christian life, discipleship, john bunyan, john piper, library, overcoming depression, piper, puritan, puritans, suffering