p. 1 | CHRIST, THE CONSOLER by X.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 7, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 27.

CHRIST, THE CONSOLER.

By X.

So THE artist calls our illustration. But in His work of consolation Jesus presents to the world no new character. As He tells us so many times in the Gospels, He came not to reveal Himself, but the Father. All the consolation that He offers is, therefore, the consolation of God; for “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”

CHRIST, THE CONSOLER. “Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself . . . comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” 2 Thess. 2:16, 17.

TO CONSOLE means to encourage, to sympathize with, to comfort, to cheer, to relieve from suffering. The original word from which “consolation” comes in the New Testament is paraklēsis. It is much more frequently rendered “comfort.” It really means more than the common use of comfort, but includes the idea of exhortation or entreaty to comfort. It is a message, or call, from God of consolation or comfort which has the comfort in itself.

THE world generally is without comfort. In the heyday of health and prosperity it enjoys a certain kind of unsatisfactory comfort, largely blighted by fear of coming ill. But when the trouble comes, even the blighted comfort departs, and dull despair takes its place. Thus the “preacher” has well expressed it: “So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.” Eccl. 4 : 1.

BUT there is a great divine Consoler, God, revealing Himself thus in many different ways.

Here is a message to the comfortless ones: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth 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. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.”

WHAT a blessed benediction is such a message! How it soothes the hot brow like a cool breeze from a flower-laden land! How it proclaims peace to the fretted soul as Jesus spoke it to tempest-tossed Galilee! How it assuages the welling, tumultuous, flowing grief of the penitent chastened, humbled, mourning heart! “The God of all comfort!” Surely there is consolation and cheer for all in all things where comfort is needed. And here is another message of comfort, written nearly eight centuries before: “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem”—the city of peace. Isa. 66 : 13.

FOR God comforts by peace; for there can be no comfort in warring against omnipotent power. God has naught against us; for “God is love.” The “enmity” is on our part in the “carnal mind,” which “is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8 : 7. Therefore, when man by faith yields himself, lays down his arms of rebellion, and accepts of God’s way, he has peace, even the peace of God, and God comforts him, even as a mother the sorrowing, penitent child.

WHO does not know the tender comfort of a mother’s heart! When little ones we often fell into trouble which others could not appreciate, but mother could, and to her we went. When we did wrong, others condemned us, refused faith in our repentance, and left us to weep in despair and remorse; but mother drew us to her side, wiped away the hot, scalding tears, gently pointed out the wrongfulness of our course, encouraged us to do better, and comforted us

with a smile and a kiss. And, O, how many in stronger and older manhood would give worlds, if they possessed them, to feel once more the touch of mother’s hand, the sound of mother’s voice, the embrace of mother’s arms, the sweetness of mother’s kiss, as she comforted her child!

BUT mothers are mortal and limited. Many were mothers only in name. Many were foolish mothers who did not know how to comfort. And all have only human power, and, like all other mortals, die, and are laid to sleep. But One lives, aye, lives forever; and He declares: “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.” “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” Here is everlasting comfort.

GOD comforts by His Word. “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God.” Isa. 40 : 1. This is God’s message of comfort, which reveals that all flesh is grass, but that God is everything. It tells us to turn from the grass, to “behold your God.” What a message of comfort is Isaiah 40! Truly said the apostle: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation [comfort] grant you to be like-minded one toward another.” Rom. 15 : 4, 5. To the mourning saints at Thessalonica is given the sweet, glad tidings of a coming Saviour and King who will raise the dead; and the apostle concludes, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4 : 14–18. The blessed Word is full of comfort.

GOD comforts us through Jesus, the Purchaser of all comfort. Christ brought to man all the comfort of God. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord [the Father] hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; . . . to comfort all that mourn.” Isa. 61 : 1, 2. And so He declares, “Blessed are they that mourn [for their sins]; for they shall be comforted.” It is for this reason that the beloved apostle writes: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate [Paraklēton, Comforter] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2 : 1. Yea, He is the divine Comforter to every soul who mourns over the sinfulness of sin. There are those who mourn because of the results or consequences of sin. These are not true mourners. He only truly mourns over sin who renounces the sin, and mourns because he sinned against a Being so good. But however dark the sin, the true penitent will find comfort in Christ. The broken-hearted, vile leper will hear in answer to his prayer for cleansing, the words, “I will; be thou clean.” The penitent palsied one will hear, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” The poor, weak adulteress will go forward in new strength, girded in might, with the sweet message, “Go, and sin no more.” Penitent Peters who have denied their Lord in His humiliation may hear, as sent to them, “He is risen again.” Go to Him, sinner, and find everlasting comfort and good hope.

“BUT,” you say, “He is not here. How can I go to Him?” Yes, He is here by His own representative, which makes Him a mightier help than tho He were here personally. He is now everywhere. He said: “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter [Paraklēton, Advocate], that He may abide with you forever.” “He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. . . . He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” John 14 : 16; 16 : 13, 14. The mighty Comforter of God comes to every one, bearing in the great life-current of God the power, the personality, the presence of Jesus Christ. I have a friend who is twenty miles away. Twenty years ago I could neither see him nor hear him speak. Now, if in trouble, I can step to a telephone, ring him up, and hear the very sound of his voice as tho he were close by me. The very intonations are his. I would know it among a thousand. Scientific men tell us that in a little while we can converse without an intervening wire, and we can also see each other by the aid of electricity. But, O, with God, divine telegraphy, telephonism, telephotography, and telepathy are exact sciences, and He can bring to every one in harmony with Him His own comforting presence in many ways! And all this is wrought by the Comforter, the blessed Spirit of life, which Jesus gives to every soul needing comfort. Just as truly as the leper could go to Jesus while on earth, you may go to Him now. Let faith reach up with open heart, with every spiritual force attent, and God will speak comfort and peace to you. The Spirit of Christ is appointed “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.”

BUT one more means of comfort and consolation: God desires that man shall comfort man. “Comfort yourselves together, and build up one another.” 1 Thess. 5 : 11. So we ought to comfort the penitent. 2 Cor. 2 : 7. So God comforted Paul “by the coming of Titus.” 2 Cor. 7 : 6. Did you ever feel, dear soul, that God has suffered you to have trouble, trial, affliction, and tribulation for some good cause? Or have you, like Jerusalem of old, shut yourself up to your own sad lot, and said, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow”? The prophet said, “She had no comforter.” She had none because she would not have. She would not be comforted; she would not learn the lesson. God suffers affliction to come that we may learn the better way ourselves, and “that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” O, there are comfortless, mourning, despairing hearts on every side! Bear to them the blessed tidings of God’s free grace and all-healing power. Has He saved you from your sin?—Then you know He will save them. Has He kept you through the trial?—Witness it to them. Let Christ by His Spirit use you to testify of Jesus the Consoler. And, finally, reader, may “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” X.