IS IT COMFORT TO YOU?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CAL., KANSAS CITY, NEW YORK · Nov 28, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 48.

IS IT COMFORT TO YOU?

IN Isaiah 40 God commands His servants, "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people." He sends His messenger out into the broad wilderness of the world with the message of comfort, commanding him, "Cry!" The messenger responds, "What shall I cry?" And here is God's answer, the essential part of His message of comfort, which Peter declares to be the Gospel, the glad tidings of God:—

"All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!"

How contrary is all this to the spirit of the world, to much that is manifest everywhere in our nineteenth-century Christianity! It is not comforting to the carnal man who believes himself to be somebody to tell him that he and all his fellows are grass. It is not flattering to the high official in State or Church, who has been educated in the old Satanic lie that he will not die (Gen. 3:4), but will be as God, to tell him that all his glory is as the flower of the grass, visible to-day, gone to-morrow, blown away by the breath of God! He feels insulted. It will not do for the politician to say to his constituents, "The people is grass."

Our modern civilization, boasted as Christian, can not bear these plain truths. Deputations of prominent citizens go to high officials with flattering, fulsome words in order to win their smiles. Politicians fawn upon the people; pastors, who are looking to their flocks for support, pander to the whims of the populace. They do not see in this Gospel message God's words of comfort.

And yet only in knowing it is there comfort, true comfort, for the soul. Humanity has tried, faithfully, persistently, eagerly, sincerely, and in anguish to redeem itself, to put away its sin, to regenerate its character, to change the corrupted face of nature. But over all its well-meant, wholly human efforts may be written, "All is vanity." Scarcely does the deceived and deceiving speak his fulsome speech, ere "the glory has departed," and the flower of another head of grass appears.

And the great, troubled, sad, moaning sea of humanity, weltering in its misery, dying of sin, is no whit nearer the kingdom. They have trusted in the various schemes of the "reformers" of flesh for centuries, but they are not reformed.

But God comes to them in His messenger, with a right, honest message, and tells them just what all their experience of the past has demonstrated to be true, namely: "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." All the ages have proved it. All our own experiences have convinced us of its truth. O, why will we not believe it?—Simply this: It is too humiliating to the proud, carnal heart.

But God's message would be void of comfort did it stop here. It diagnoses our case with straightforward, honest truth, assuring us that it is worth listening to, and then it rings, with all the power of the Infinite, "The Word of our God shall stand forever."

There are strength and comfort in that. God's word created the heaven and earth. He upholds all things "by the word of His power." There is glory in it. By His word has He beautified the heavens. It was His word which made Jesus Christ the perfect Man, the Saviour of men. It is that Word which cleanses the sinner, changes the heart, renews the life, keeps from falling, raises the dead, changes to immortality. All comfort is found in the everlasting, all-embracing Word of God.

And only they who learn this Gospel message of comfort can tell the glad tidings to Zion and Jerusalem, can say to longing ones, "Behold, your God." Nay, unless men can look upon God, they will give glory to men. But if they can see His glory, if they will but set Him always before their face, they will not stop to glorify poor, vain man. They will preach to the world the great comforting message of God,—salvation through the living Word in Jesus Christ alone.

O reader, is there not comfort in this for you?