01.09. TRUE COMFORTS

9. TRUE COMFORTS Are you afflicted? Beware of bad comforts and comforters. It is always dangerous to betake ourselves to broken cisterns, which can hold no water. This is a common error. To this course many will tempt you. When by their sins Israel brought on themselves the divine judgments in the shape of wars and public enemies, instead of humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God, and asking Jehovah, their King, to deliver them, they were much inclined to go to Assyria or Egypt for horsemen.

There are always weak or bad men who officiously offer advice which it is dangerous to follow. They may not give as wicked counsel as did Job’s wife; but perhaps it is not much better. Whatever leads us to light thoughts of sin, or to hard thoughts of God; whatever inclines us to lean to our own understanding, or to make light of God’s heavy strokes—is sinful. We cannot safely lean on any arm but that of the Almighty.

What, then shall the afflicted do? The answers are many; such as—

1. If your affliction is such that human sympathy can either soothe or alleviate it, ask the aid and kindness of true Christian friends. It is both lawful and natural to do so. Job, though a great man and a great believer, said: "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me." He had before said: "To him who is afflicted, pity should be shown from his friends." Paul, the great apostle, tells us how the visits and sympathy of his friends refreshed him. Even our blessed Master called on His disciples for sympathy in His great agony. Christian love is often a great healer.

2. But we need divine sympathy also—even the compassions of God Himself. This is manifest in many ways, but preeminently in and by Jesus Christ. On this matter, both Testaments speak the same language. By the evangelical prophet, the Lord says: "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old" (Isaiah 63:9). In the New Testament we are assured of the same blessed sympathy: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

3. It is always wise to roll our burden over on the arm of the Almighty. He is stronger than man. He is mighty to save and strong to deliver. "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you. He shall never allow the righteous to be moved" (Psalms 55:22).

4. Then the more of sanctified suffering we have, the more real comfort are we sure to possess, even in this life. Paul expressly says: "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ" (2 Corinthians 1:5). The blessed apostle was so in love with Christ that one of his strong desires was "to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (Php 3:10).

5. Not only does God increase our blessed experiences by calling us to trial, but He thus prepares us to help others. For He "comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:4). Think of that, and give thanks.

6. Paul presents a very striking view of the trials of God’s people, when he speaks of himself (and so of others) as "filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ" (Colossians 1:24). That is very remarkable language. It cannot mean that Christ did not suffer all that was necessary for atonement, for the Scripture expressly says that He did. It probably presents Christ to us as a mystical person, of which He, the head, had already suffered His part, and now His members, as joined with Him, should suffer their part.

7. All these afflictions are designed to prepare the way for great, very great and unspeakable joys at the time that eternal mercy has selected for glorious manifestations. This doctrine was known in the Church a thousand years before Christ: "You caused me to experience many troubles and misfortunes, but You will revive me again. You will bring me up again, even from the depths of the earth. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again" (Psalms 71:20-21).

8. Nor is there a saint in heaven, even though he may have died a martyr, who now wishes that his sufferings on earth had been less. Indeed the martyrs wear a very glorious crown. See Revelation 7:9-17. Then, let each of us humbly say:

"I dare not choose my lot; I would not, if I might; O choose for me, my God; So shall I walk aright.

"O take my cup, and it With joy or sorrow fill, As best to You may seem; Choose You my good and ill."