The Book of Comfort


This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.--Ps. 119: 50.

When trouble overtakes us, when sickness invades the home, when the grave covers our dead and we wander aimlessly in the broken household, it is the Bible that comes to comfort, console and quicken us. It teaches us to say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46: 1). It tells us, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (II Cor. 4: 17). It gives us Christ's assurance, "Let not your heart be troubled: in my Father's house are many mansions" (John 14: 1-2). It brings to us His promise, "Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy" (John 16: 20). And the soul responds, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the God of all comfort who comforted us in all our troubles" (II Cor. 1: 3-4).

It was William E. Gladstone, the renowned British statesman, who said: "If I am asked what is the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human heart; what a man should chiefly look to as the power that is to sustain him under trials, and enable him manfully to confront his afflictions, I must point to something which, in a well-known hymn, is called ‘the old, old story,’ told in an old, old Book, and taught with an old, old teaching, which is the greatest and best gift ever given to man.”

For many years I have been a minister, and a very large part of my work has been that of ministering comfort to troubled and sorrowing hearts. In this ministry I have relied wholly on the Bible. Without it, I would be at a loss as a comforter. When people are in trouble, when they are stricken with grief, and send for their minister, they want him to come with his Bible--and not any other book. There is no other book that will take its place in the house of mourning.

O blessed Book of light and consolation! How many, many feet it has lighted along life's mysterious and wearisome pathway! What multitudes it has comforted in their miseries and sorrows! Who can tell of the suffering it has alleviated, the heartaches it has soothed, the trials it has softened, the burdens it has lightened, the fears it has banished, the tears it has dried away, the clouds it has turned into sunshine!

The blackest hours of life are lighted up by the teachings and comforts of the Bible.