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Comfort in Sorrow

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 3, 1858

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 12, No. 3.

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Comfort in Sorrow.

BE mine the ministry of love To lift the fallen—cheer the fainting heart, And point to Him, whose weary feet oft trod The path of sorrow—with these the piercing thorns That men despised, and coldly looked on One Whose heart was full of love and tenderness.
COMFORT—what a cheering word to the heart-stricken one, who is almost ready to despair, in view of a cup filled to overflowing with ills which it is vain to attempt to avert.
Yes! loved one, comfort for thee.
There may be still one bright spot in the dark sky which overshadows all thine earthly prospects—a tiny spot of light, which needs some guiding hand to point it out with thy bedimmed vision, but swelling in magnitude as thou gazest until the dark shadows almost vanish in the distance.
Who would not lend that guiding hand, speak words of kindly encouragement in the hour of trial!
Friend after friend perhaps has been followed to the silent tomb, until alone in the midst of life, there seems left to the bereaved one, nothing for which to live. Some gentle one whispers to that desolate heart, "A cup of cold water only, given from love to Christ, shall not lose its reward." New hope fills the breast—there is something for which to live; humble labor in His vineyard is accepted, and will bring peace and joy to the mourned heart.
The breath of slander may mar the fairest christian character. The most conscientious and upright are not quite safe from the poisoned arrows from deceitful lips.
Is it not worth even the reproach of earth for "misjudged kindness," to breathe in such an one's ear, "to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not?" Yes! injured and smitten one, it is for thy comfort. God only allows wicked and unjust men to triumph for a while. He cannot approve.
Have those in whom trust was reposed, those with whom all our interests were felt to be safe, proved treacherous or unkind.
Ah! this is anguish—anguish with which the world at large have but little sympathy. The tale of heart-woes becomes tiresome, however true to those whose highest delight is in "sunny smiles and laughing eyes." The face saddened into a leaden hue, by sufferings and wrongs borne in silence excites but little commiseration or thought of the why or wherefore of such sadness. How soothing to such sufferers the patient ear, the tender tones of love, the heartfelt sympathy, and full often the material aid, all of which require but little or no self-denial on the part of the giver.
Yet how ready is the human heart, itself elated with prosperity, to think—and possibly to utter—with Pharisaical complacency, Are not these sinners above all others, that such a lot should be theirs? Something must be wrong on their part!
Yet stay the hasty judgment, vain mortal! Thine own soul may yet be called to the same test, in the fiery furnace of temptation and trial. Couldst thou come out unscathed as even this sad one? Could thine own heart endure all the well-meant counsel or severe condemnation which now thou dost so freely offer thy fellow in like circumstances? The heart, bleeding and almost broken with long, smothered ills, may not need a censor's probing touch, to sink it still deeper in despair, half as much as kind and cheering words—encouragement to hold fast the path of duty, if it be a strait and narrow way.
Christ has his chosen "well-beloved ones," yet on earth, not always those whose "fame is in all the churches," for high and noble deeds, but those "of whom the world is not worthy."
High above the praise of earth may we not find at last some of even these, whom we have passed by as "always in affliction, always in the deep waters of adversity?"
Wouldst thou be the one christian, to lift up the "cast down but not destroyed?" Then stay! oh, stay the harsh and reproachful word to the already crushed and bowed spirit.
Even now an angel may be commissioned to do thy work, to bind up the broken heart, to whisper, "Thou art not alone, thine elder brother, Jesus, was a man of sorrows, despised and rejected of men, acquainted with grief."
Yes! afflicted one, the promise is for thee, "A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth."—Advocate and Guardian.