August 30

I will not leave you comfortless. - John 14:18.

WHATEVER be the number or nature of the Christian’s trials, here is a gracious assurance that God does not leave his people to suffer without affording them comfort and support. If their tribulations abound, so also do their consolations. He who thus assures to them the comfort of his presence is the “God of all comfort;” and he answers to his name, for he says, “I am he that comforteth you.” Nor can he deny himself. His people have many fears. Zion said, “The Lord hath forsaken me; my God hath forgotten me.” But no; he does not, he cannot, forget his afflicted people.

No, he will not leave his people comfortless. His relations forbid it. He is their Shepherd; therefore they may say, “I shall not want; thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” He is their Friend, who loveth at all times. Their Father:-“And like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Their Husband:-’”And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” His perfections forbid it. He knows all their sorrows. He knows all their walking through this great wilderness. He is able to relieve and deliver them. His promises forbid it:-“I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her,” there in the wilderness; “and I will give her her vineyards from thence,” when nothing of the kind could be there looked for, and the “valley of Achor for a door of hope.” Yea, “the Lord shall comfort Zion;” and the best way to realize this, is to apply unto him for these spiritual consolations.

But in what way does the Lord comfort his people in their afflictions? Does he speak of deliverance? Does he say that they shall no more eat the bread of adversity and drink of the water of affliction?-that in future they shall spend their days in ease and prosperity? There is not a word of this. But he leads them to himself, to the throne of grace, to the Scriptures of truth, to the “comforts of the Holy Ghost,” and to the “joys of God’s salvation.” Our Saviour said to the sick of the palsy, “Be of good cheer.” Why? Because thou art made whole? No; but “because thy sins are forgiven thee.”

It is thus the Lord affords spiritual comforts to his people under temporal troubles and afflictions, and this is the kind of relief they chiefly want and desire. Thus, Gaius had a weak body while his soul prospered and was in health. Thus Job in his deepest sorrows said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and not for another.” Thus David at Ziglag, when greatly distressed, “encouraged himself in the Lord his God;” and when drawing near the grave, having much trouble in his family, he said, “Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he maketh it not to grow.”

Thus Paul was comforted when the thorn was rankling in his flesh and he cried to God for deliverance; but, instead of immediate deliverance, he was assured, “My grace is sufficient for thee;” and with this he was satisfied.