April 14

APRIL 14.—“The God of all comfort.”—2 Corinthians 1:3.

How much, both as to duty and privilege, depends upon the views we entertain of “Him with whom we have to do!” And while born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, and passing through a vale of tears, and feeling even in our best estate some heart’s bitterness—for “full bliss is bliss divine;” what can be more encouraging and delightful than to regard him as “THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT?”

And how well does he deserve this beneficent title! Every comfort we have in the creature is from him. If sleep comforts us when we are weary, or food comforts us when we are hungry, it is from his goodness. If when he sendeth abroad his ice like morsels and none can stand before his cold, we have houses to defend us, raiment to cover us, fuel to warm us, it is from him. When the spring returns, whose sun calls us to go forth into the fields and gardens? Who regales all our senses? Who charms the ear with these melodies? the eye with these colours? the smell with these perfumes? and the appetite with these tastes? Who gives us those benign and joyous and grateful sensations which we feel when the lambs sport themselves? and the apple-tree is dressed among the trees of the wood? and the hay appeareth? and the full corn waves in the ear? and the reaper fills his hand, and he that bindeth sheaves his bosom? and the little hills rejoice on every side? and the year is crowned with his goodness?

Who has not by accident or disease been confined to the chamber of weariness and pain; and who by the sympathies, attentions, and soothings of the tenderest friendship, has comforted you upon the bed of languishing, and made all your bed in your sickness? And who when the graves were ready for you, and you said, I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world, Who comforted you by the return of ease, the re-glowing of health, the renewal of your strength, the resumption of your liberty—so that all your bones said, “Who is a God like unto Thee?”

Has a friend like ointment and perfume rejoiced your heart by the sweetness of his counsel? or has a minister been the helper of your faith and joy? The Lord gave him the tongue of the learned, that he should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. God comforted you by the coming of Titus.

The heathens made idols of every thing that afforded them relief and comfort; and thus they loved and served the creature more than the Creator. Let us not resemble them; but remember that whatever may be the medium of our comfort, God is the only source of it. Thus the instrument instead of seducing us from God, will be a conductor to him; and the stream will lead us to the “fountain of life.” God will not give his glory to another; and we cannot affront him more than by substituting any thing in the place of him. This will provoke him to strike the idol that robs him of his praise out of the way; or cause him by disappointing us in the moment of application to say, “Am I in God’s stead? If the Lord help thee not, whence should I help thee?” If we will not make him our trust, he will make that whereon we lean to smite us. He can take comfort out of all our possessions and enjoyments, so that in the midst of our sufficiency we shall be in straits, and with cheerfulness

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on every side walk in silence and sadness, like a ghost among the tombs. What Job calls his friends, "physicians of no value," "miserable comforters," will apply to all our dependencies and expectations separate from God. Even in laughter the heart will be sorrowful. Our successes, like the quails of the Jews, will poison us while they gratify: our prosperity will destroy us: and at the end of our days the fool and the wretch will acknowledge the truth of Jonah's confession, "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies; salvation is of the Lord."

True comfort is to be found in God only; in the hope of his mercy; in the evidence of his friendship; in the freedom of his service; in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. But they who seek it in him shall not be confounded. He has insured to those who flee for refuge to this hope, strong consolation, by a promise confirmed by an oath; and what he promises he is able to perform. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. No depth of distress is below his reach. He can create comfort when there is nothing to derive it from. He can extract it out of the most unlikely materials. He can bring order out of confusion, strength out of weakness, light out of darkness.

Sufferer! think of Him! It is his prerogative and delight to "comfort them that are cast down." Why should you faint or despond? Are the consolations of God small with thee? Does not He say, "I, even I, am he that comforteth thee?"

Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief. "Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side."

APRIL 15.—"Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me."—Psalm 1. 11.

We may see what David prized by what he deprecates. There were many calamities at the thought of which his heart might have trembled. He could remember how God for his disobedience had punished his predecessor Saul, and had rent the kingdom from him. He knew how God by Nathan had threatened himself; and he could not help feeling the announcement, that the child should die, and the sword never depart from his house. Yet he does not say, O let me escape the rod—do not deprive me of my throne—or involve my family in trouble and disgrace. This is what many would have implored. But David prays, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me." They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; and thus it is with men of the world; they are satisfied as long as their friends and health, their corn and wine, abound. Tell them of the hiding of God's countenance, and the loss of the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and they know not your meaning, and are ready to treat you with scorn or pity. They judge of every thing by a fallacious standard. "Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things." They weigh every claim in the balance of the sanctuary. They walk by faith and not by sight. No evils therefore appear to them like those which regard the welfare of the soul and eternity.