"He is Faithful that Promised."
"I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to
you."--JOHN xiv. 18.
Comforting Grace.
Blessed Jesus! How thy presence sanctifies trial, takes loneliness from
the chamber of sickness, and the sting from the chamber of death! Bright
and Morning Star! precious at all times, thou art never _so_ precious as
in "the dark and cloudy day!" The bitterness of sorrow is well worth
enduring to have thy promised consolations. How well qualified, thou Man
of Sorrows, to be my Comforter! How well fitted to dry my tears, Thou
who didst shed so many thyself! What are _my_ tears--my sorrows--my
crosses--my losses, compared with Thine, who didst shed first Thy tears,
and then Thy blood for _me_! Mine are all deserved, and infinitely more
than deserved. How different, O Spotless Lamb of God, those pangs which
rent Thy guiltless bosom! How sweet those comforts Thou hast promised to
the comfortless, when I think of them as flowing from an Almighty
_Fellow-Sufferer_,--"A brother born for adversity,"--the "Friend that
sticketh closer than any brother!"--one who can say, with all the
refined sympathies of a holy exalted human nature, "I know your
sorrows!" My soul! calm thy griefs! There is not a sorrow thou canst
experience, but Jesus, in the treasury of grace, has an exact
corresponding solace: "In the multitude of the _sorrows_ I have in my
heart, Thy _comforts_ delight my soul!"
"REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON
WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!"