Wondrous Comfort From Thoughts
of God by John Macduff, 1864 How precious are your thoughts
unto me, O God! I, even I, am He who comforts
you. Isaiah Chapter 51 Verse 12 How soothing the thought for
the weary head to lean upon, that in the midst of our bitterest
trials, we have the great God of heaven for our comforter.
Dry your tears. He seems to say, I am by your
side, oh poor afflicted one. Other comforts may fail you.
Other comforters may prove utterly powerless to gauge the depths
of your sorrow and to heal your aching wounds. But I, as God,
infinite in wisdom, omniscience, and love, know all the peculiarities
of your case. I will be to you better than
the best and tenderest of human friends. My delight is to uphold
all who fall and to raise up all those who are bowed down.
I have precious thoughts reserved for the day of calamity. Thoughts
that are whispered into the ear of the sorrowful. I, even I, the same hand that
has wounded will bind up. The same hand that is strong
to smite will be strong to save. I will give you solaces undreamt
of in the day of prosperity. Songs in the night and wells
of refreshing in the valley of weeping. Is it sickness that
has blanched your cheek and chained you down for weeks and months
or maybe years to a couch of pain and languishing? I will
not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Is it your
worldly schemes that have been blighted? Moth and rust corrupting
the earthly treasure? I will give you compensating
riches beyond the spoiler's touch and the throw of capricious fortune. Is it bereavement that has traced
lines of sadness on your brow, created vacant chairs in your
household, left your heart of hearts stripped and desolate?
Be still. I will take the place of the
mourned one. I will come and fill up these
aching voids, yawning chasm with my own loving presence. The shallow
real is gone, but you will have an exchange, the infinite fountainhead. Is it sin that is making your
countenance sad, the bitter thought of estrangement from me, whose
favor alone is life, wearied with the successive failure of
all worldly sources of satisfaction and happiness? Are you turning
with longing, wistful gaze, like the battered flower to the sunlight,
towards myself, the living God, wondering if there can be peace
and forgiveness for such as you? I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions. I will heal your backsliding.
I will love you freely, for my anger is turned away from you. I, even I. Do not doubt his ability or willingness
to comfort. God is beautifully spoken of
as the God of all comfort, the comforter of all who are cast
down. As wide as his afflicted family
are, his consolations commensurate with every diversity of experience. He has a thought of comfort for
every thought of sorrow. in the multitude of the sorrows
I have in my heart," says the psalmist. Your comforts delight
my soul. His message to the Church of
Old, after burden on burden of reluctantly spoken woe, was,
Comfort, comfort my people. Repeating the word is the usual
Hebrew method of intensifying, as if he wished to tell with
what delight he passed from the gloomy prophetic utterances of
judgment to the joyous promises of mercy and love. He does not
afflict willingly, or he does not afflict from his heart, nor
grieve the children of men, as if affliction in itself were
alien to the heart and thoughts of God. And let the thought of
God the Comforter be all the more precious to me, since that
God is Immanuel, our brother on the throne of heaven. Himself
once the Prince of Sufferers, He is supremely qualified by
the exquisite sensibilities of His human nature to enter into
every pain which rends the heart. I, even I, the god-man who shed
tears over the bereaved of Bethany. I, even I, who welcomed weeping
penitents to my feet. I, even I, who myself struggled
with temptation, grappled with superhuman anguish, lived a life
of sorrow, and died a death of shame. I, even I, that same Jesus,
am He who comforts you. Though you have made me see troubles,
many and bitter, you will restore my life again. From the depths
of the earth, you will again bring me up. you