Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye
“* Ask God to give thee skill
In comfort’s art;
That thou mayst consecrated be
And set apart
Into a life of sympathy.
For heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And comforters are needed much
Of Christlike touch.”
A. E. HAMILTON.
ISAIAH xl. 1.)
HINK it not strange, child of God, concerning the fiery trial that tries thee, as though some strange thing had happened. Rejoice! for it is a sure sign that thou art on the right track. If in an unknown country, I am informed that I must pass through a valley where the sun is hidden, or over a stony bit
of road, to reach my abiding-place — when I come to it, each
moment of shadow or jolt of the carriage tells me that I am on the right road. So when a child of God passes through affliction he is not surprised.
In the case of the chosen people, who for nearly seventy years had been strangers in a strange land, and had drunk the cup of bitterness to its dregs, there was thus added weight to their sorrow — the conviction of their captivity being the result of their own impenitence and transgression. This is the bitterest of all — to know that suffering need not have been; that it has resulted from indiscretion and inconsistency; that it is the harvest of one’s own sowing; that the vulture which feeds on the vitals is a nestling of one’s own rearing. Ah me! this is pain! There is an inevitable Nemesis in life. The laws of the heart and home, of the soul and human life, cannot be violated with impunity. Sin may be forgiven; the fire of penalty may be changed into the fire of trial; the love of God. may seem nearer and dearer than ever — and yet there is the awful pressure of pain; the trembling heart; the failing of eyes and pining of soul; the harp on the willows; the refusal of the lip to sing the Lord’s song.
We cannot wonder at the troubles that afflict us. Look up. Thou art to be like the Son of God, who Himself passed through the discipline of pain, as the participator with the children of flesh and blood. If He needed to come to earth to learn obedience by the things that He suffered, surely thou canst not escape. Couldst thou be quite like Him, unless thou wert perfected by suffering? Thou must endure the file of the lapidary; the heat of the crucible; the bruising of the flail — not to win thy heaven, but to destroy thy unheavenliness. The spirits gathered on the frontiers of the heavenly world, to encourage thee in thy journey thither, tell thee that the brilliance of their reward has been in the measure of the vehemence of their sorrows, giving scope and opportunity for the heroism of their faith.
Look down. ‘Thinkest thou that the prince of hell was pleased when thou didst forsake him for thy new Master, Christ? Verily not! At the moment of thy conversion, thy name was put on the proscribed list; and all the powers of darkness pledged themselves to obstruct thy way. Remember how Satan hated Job; does he not hate thee? He would vent on thee the hatred he has to thy Lord, if he might. There is, at least, that one case on record of hell being permitted to test a saint, within a defined limit.
Look around. Thou art still in the world that crucified thy Lord, and would do the same again, if He were to return to it. It cannot love thee. It will call thee Beelzebub. It will cast thee out of its synagogue. It will count it a religious act to slay thee. In the world thou shalt have tribulations, though J in the midst of them thou mayest be of good cheer.
A Bibine Art. It When the soul is in the period of its exile and bitter pain, it
should do three things: Look out for comfort; store it up; and pass it on.
I. LOOK OUT FOR COMFORT. — It will come certainly. Wherever the nettle grows, beside it grows the dock-leaf; and wher- ever there is severe trial, there is, somewhere at hand, a sufficient store of comfort, though our eyes, like Hagar’s, are often holden that we cannot see it. But it is as sure as the faithfulness of God. “I never had,” says Bunyan, writing of his twelve years’ imprisonment, “in all my life, so great an insight into the Word of God as now; insomuch that I have often said, Were it lawful, I could pray for greater trouble, for the greater comforts’ sake.” God cannot forget his child. He cannot leave us to suffer, unsuccoured and alone. He rums to meet the prodigal; but He rides on a cherub, and He /ves on the wings of the wind to the sinking disciple.
It will come proportionately. Thy Father holds a pair of scales. This on the right is called As, and is for thine afflictions; this on the left is called So, and is for thy comforts. And the beam is always kept level. The more thy trial, the more thy comfort. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth through Christ.
It will come Dzvinely. It is well, when meeting a friend at the terminus, to know by what route to expect him, lest he arrive on one platform, whilst we await him on another. It is equally important to know in what quarter to look for comfort. Shall we look to the hills, the stable and lofty things of earth? No; in vain is salvation looked for from the multitude of the mountains. Shall we look to man? No; for he cannot reach low enough into the heart. Shall we look to angels? No; among the many ministries that God entrusts to them, He seldom sends them to comfort: perhaps they are too strong, or they have never suffered. To bind up a broken heart requires a delicacy of touch which a Gabriel has not. God reserves to Himself the prerogative of comfort. It is a Divine art. The choice name of the Son and the Spirit is Paraclete (the Consoler, or Comforter). Thine is the God of all comfort. It is when Israel is in the extremity of her anguish, that the Divine Voice sounds from heaven in strains of music, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.” “I am He that comforteth you.” “As one whom his mother comforteth, will I comfort you.”
It will come mediately. What the prophet was as the spokesman of Jehovah, uttering to the people in human tones the inspirations that came to him from God, so to us is the great Prophet, whose shoe-latchet the noblest of the prophetic band was not worthy to unloose; and our comfort is the sweeter because it reaches us through Him. In these words we hear the Father calling to the Son, and saying, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” “Our comfort aboundeth ‘hrough SCLrish”
It will come variously. Sometimes by the coming of a beloved Titus; a bouquet; a bunch of grapes; a letter; a message; a card. Sometimes by a promise; the laying of an ice-cold cloth on our fevered brows; sometimes by God
coming near. See in this chapter the variety of considerations.
by which God would comfort the despondent soul. That the term of sorrow is nearly accomplished; that herald voices announce the levelling of difficulties, and the approach of dawn; that the covenant stands sure; that the God of stars and worlds is the tender Shepherd, who will not overdrive His flock; that man at his strongest is but the flower of grass, whilst God’s Word is like the great mountains. There are many strings in the dulcimer of consolation.
In sore sorrow it is not what a friend says, but what he is, that helps us. Ye comforts best who says least, but simply draws near, takes the sufferer’s hand, and sits silent in his sympathy. This is God’s method. ‘Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon Thee :.Thou saidst, Fear not!”
II. STORE UP COMFORT. — This was the prophet’s mission. He had to receive before he could impart. He had to be schooled himself before he could teach others.
The world is full of comfortless hearts. Orphan children are crying in the night. Rachels are weeping for their
— — oe children. Strong men are crushed in the wine-press, because their blood is the life of the world. Our God pities them. He cannot stay the progress of these awful years, until the mystery of iniquity is finished. Still He pities, and would assuage the anguish of the world through thee. But ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for to render it perfect, thou must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Thy limbs are broken, that in the setting of them thou mayest have a personal acquaintance with the anatomy and surgery of the heart.
Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special time of sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed. I warrant thee, that in that time thou wilt find some, perhaps ten, afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them some day how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God had wrapped around thee, in the eager look and glistening eye, and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness.
Store up a careful memory of the way in which God comforts thee. Watch narrowly how He does it. Keep a diary, if thou wilt, and note down all the procedure of his skill. Ponder the length of each splint, the folds of each bandage, the effect of each opiate, cordial, or drug. This will bring a twofold blessing. It will divert thy thoughts from thy miseries to the outnumbering mercies; and it will take away that sense of useless and aimless existence which is often’ the sufferer’s weariest cross.
III. PAss ON THE COMFORT YOU RECEIVE. — At a railway-station a kind-hearted man found a schoolboy crying, because he had not quite enough money to pay his fare home. Suddenly, he remembered how, years before, Ze had been in the same plight, hut had been helped by an unknown friend, who enjoined him some day to pass the kindness on. Now he saw that the anticipated moment had arrived. He took the weeping boy aside, told himn the story, paid his fare, and asked him, in his turn, to pass the kindness on. And as the train moved from the station, the lad cried cheerily, “I will pass it on, sir.” So that act of wonderful love is being passed on through the world, nor will it stay till its ripples have circled the globe and met again.
“Go, and do thou likewise.” “Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her.’ God comforteth thee, that thou mightest comfort those who are in any trouble. Thou canst not miss them; they are not scarce. Thine own sad past will make thee quick to detect them, where others might miss them. If thou findest them not, seek them; the wounded hart goes alone to die. Sorrow shuns society. Get from the Man of Sorrows directions where the sorrowing hide. He knows their haunts, from which they have cried to Him. He has been there before thee. And when thou comest where they are, do for them as the Good Samaritan did for thee, when He bound up thy wounds, pouring in oil and wine. “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, saith your God.”