TRUE comfort enables us to endure sorrow or trial. When bowed to the very earth by the weight of some unexpected disaster, the word of comfort comes like the arm of a strong man and lifts us again until the trouble can be faced with firm and patient resignation.
But there is no real comfort apart from love; and the “comfort of love” (Phil. 2:11If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, (Philippians 2:1)) found perfect expression only in the person of Christ. The prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah of Israel would display this character. He would come “to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isa. 61:2, 32To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. (Isaiah 61:2‑3)).
And we find from the Gospels that when here on earth, there was no voice like the voice of Jesus to dry up the tearful eyes, and chase the clouds from gloomy faces. There was also infinite power in that voice. Its authoritative accents were heard amid the howling tempest on the Galilean lake. The furious hurricane and the leaping billows mocked the power of man; but at the word of Jesus they checked their rage and sunk at His feet as “still as a stone.” But along with that power was the wondrous gentleness that neither broke the bruised reed nor quenched the smoking flax.
How is it that we have this strange commingling of illimitable might and exquisite tenderness in the same Person? Because “God is love”; and that Person was God, “manifest in flesh.”
Infinite Love was then among men. Thus there was a place in the loving heart of Jesus for all the sorrows of mankind. In His comprehensive love, the Lord entered fully into the nature of the trials of those around Him.
Hence His words, full as they were of the tenderest sympathy and compassion, came with such marvelous comfort to the hearts of those that heard Him.
When the Lord met that mournful procession from Nain, He said to the poor widow whose heart was breaking at the loss of her only son but two words, “Weep not.” But what words were they! A gleam of heaven’s sunshine athwart the gloom of her soul!
How differently they sounded as they fell from His lips than if they had been spoken by ardent Peter or even the affectionate John. The Lord did not say anything at first to cause her to think of her son being raised to life. It was hers to learn, as it is ours, that the Lord can comfort even without removing the cause of grief.
Oh! how great the love that was able with two-words only to comfort the mourner at the grave.
If we endeavor to comfort others, let us not seek to say a great deal; but what we do say let it be said because the love of Christ constraineth us.
In a simple and humble way, let us strive to be like speaking-tubes through which the voice of the Lord shall come to the sad and troubled hearts of His own. With the comfort wherewith we are comforted, let us comfort one another.