Speak ye Comfortably

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 28, 1859

"Speak ye Comfortably."

The weary need sympathy and encouragement. They are prone to despond. Their work is burdensome to them. They do it listlessly, carelessly, mournfully; sometimes they are tempted not to do it at all. They are disposed to magnify their difficulties, and to underrate their own capabilities. They take a gloomy view of things. Their hands hang down; their knees are feeble; their brow is clouded. And it would be both unwise and unkind to blame them. Would it lessen their fatigue do you think, to censure them for being tired? Or would they be likely to grow more hopeful through your scolding them for their faint-heartedness?

No, they want comfort, not reproof; gentle counsels, not harsh animadversion. When the wearied and dejected prophet sat under the juniper tree, and, with fretful impatience, exclaimed, "It is enough; now, O Lord take away my life;" how gently God dealt with him! An angel was sent to minister unto him, who prepared for him a table in the wilderness, and bade him arise and eat, and recruit his strength.—Sel.