The Christian Comfort
“Walking in the midst of the fire.” — Daniel hi. 25.
The fire did not arrest their motion; they walked in the midst of it. It was one of the streets through which they moved to their destiny. The comfort of Christ’s revelation is not that it teaches emancipation from sorrow; every faith does that. But Christ teaches emancipation through sorrow. Did you ever ask yourself the precise difference between a prison and a tunnel. No man would hesitate for a moment which he would rather be in. But why? Not on the ground of darkness, for the tunnel is the darker of the two. Not on the ground that the prison is disgrace, for there have been prisons more glorious than palaces. It is because, in the prison, life is arrested; in the tunnel it moves on. The cell of my confinement may be glorious, but, however glorious, I am losing time. The tunnel, on the other hand, may be dark, but, however dark, I am gaining time. I am not retarded by a moment in my mission of life; nay, I am getting a short cut to the goal. I am not merely in the valley of the shadow; I am walking, yea, running through it.
Glad me with this comfort, O my God! Teach me, when the shadows have gathered, that I am in the tunnel, not in the prison! It is not enough for me to know that it will be all right some day. Even if that day were come, the sight of this hour would be a blot to me unless it were seen to have been part of the way. They tell me I shall stand upon the peaks of Olivet — the heights of resurrection glory. But I want more, O my Father; I want Calvary to lead up to it. I want to know that the shadows of this world are the shades of an avenue — the avenue to the house of my Father. The avenue shades may be as dark as the prison shades, but the thought will make all the difference to me. Tell me my shadows come from the trees — the trees of
Thy planting! Tell me they are the entrance to the many mansions of Thy palace! Tell me they stop not for an hour my chariot wheels! Tell me I am only forced to climb because Thy house is on the hill! Give me the evidence that I am ascending, not merely toiling! Teach me that I am coming nearer by letting me hear the voices clearer — tliQ music and the dancing less far away! I shall receive no hurt from sorrow if I shall walk in the midst of the fire.