Part 2 God, Comforting the Disconsolate
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By sealing a sense of pardon upon the conscience, God comforts the disconsolate. There is no comfort equal to this. As our deepest sorrow flows from a sense of sin, so our deepest joy springs from a sense of its forgiveness. What comfort can there be where this is lacking? what sorrow where this is felt? "When he gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" This was the comfort which God commanded the prophet to speak to His spiritual Jerusalem: "Say unto her, that her sins are forgiven." And this is the message which the Lord sends to His whole Church. This comfort have all His saints. Your sins, O believer, are forgiven. "I have blotted out your sins as a cloud, and your iniquities as a thick cloud," says God. You are not called upon to believe that God will pardon, but that He has pardoned you. Forgiveness is a past act; the sense of it written upon the conscience is a present one. "By one offering Jesus has perfected forever those who are sanctified," has forever put away their sins.
Faith in the blood of Jesus brings the soul into the possession of a present forgiveness. And when God the Holy Spirit thus imprints a sense of pardoned sin upon the troubled conscience, all other sorrows in comparison dwindle into insignificance. In all kinds of trouble, it is not the ingredients that God puts into the cup that so much afflict us, as the ingredients of our distempered passions mingled with them. The sting and the core of them all is sin: when that is not only pardoned, but in a measure healed, and the proud flesh eaten out, then a healthy soul will bear anything. After repentance, that trouble which before was a correction, becomes now a trial and exercise of grace. 'Strike, Lord,' says Luther; 'I can bear anything willingly because my sins are forgiven.' We should not be cast down so much about outward troubles, as about that sin, that both procures them and envenoms them. We see by experience, where conscience is once set at liberty, how cheerfully men will go under any burden: therefore labor to keep out sin, and then let come what will come.
Thus, beloved, God comforts His conscience-troubled people. He loves so to speak to their hearts. Is it any delight to Him to see you carrying your burden of conscious sin day after day, and week after week? Ah no! He has procured the means of your pardon at a great price- nothing less than the sacrifice of His beloved Son- and will not the same love which procured your forgiveness, speak it to your heart? Oh yes, the sun in the heavens pours not forth its light more freely, light itself speeds not more rapidly, the mountain stream rushes on not more gladsome and unfettered, than the pardon of sin flows from the heart of God to the humble and the contrite mourner. Is sin your trouble? Does conscious guilt cast you down? Look up, disconsolate soul! there is forgiveness with God. It is in His heart to pardon you. Repair to His feet, go to God's confessional, and over the head of the atoning sacrifice acknowledge your transgression, and He will forgive the iniquity of your sin.
And oh, what will be the joy of your heart, the music of your lips, the grateful surrender of yourself, when Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven you, go in peace!" "Who is a God like unto you, who pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retains not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy."
God sometimes comforts the cast down, by bringing them to rest in the fulness and stability of the covenant. David was a man of great grace, a man after God's own heart, and yet he was deeply tried. The greater the amount of precious ore which the refiner places in his furnace, the severer the test to which he subjects it. This may explain what perhaps to some minds is a mystery in the Divine conduct- why the most distinguished saints have ever been the most tried saints. But see how God comforted David in the deepest trial which could wring a believing parent's heart. He had arranged, as he thought, for the best welfare of his family. God steps in, and disarranges all. Incest, treason, murder, are crimes which find an entrance within his domestic circle. His children make themselves vile, and he could not restrain them. What a cloud was now resting upon his tabernacle! How bitter were the waters he was now drinking! But see how God comforted him. "Although my house do not be so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation and all my desire; although he makes it (his house) not to grow."
Believer, this covenant is equally yours. You have the same individual interest in it that David had. The 'sure mercies' of the true David are yours as they were his. In the midst of domestic trial- family changes- thwarted designs- blighted hopes, God has made with you, in the hands of Jesus, its Surety and Mediator, an 'everlasting covenant.' In it your whole history is recorded by Him who knows the end from the beginning. All the events of your life, all the steps of your journey, all your sorrows and comforts, all your needs and supplies, are ordained in that covenant which is 'ordered in all things and sure.' And while mutability is a constituent element of everything temporal- 'passing away' written upon life's loveliest landscape, and upon the heart's fondest treasure, this, and this alone, remains 'sure,' and never passes away. Let, then, the covenant be your comfort and your stay, your sheet-anchor in the storm, the rainbow in your cloud, upon which God invites you to fix your believing eye; yes, all your salvation and all your desire, though He makes not domestic comfort to grow.
But of all the consolations which flow into the soul of the disconsolate, not the least is that he has a covenant God to go to in PRAYER. What can surpass this? What could supply its place? Nothing! In no way does God more effectually comfort those that are cast down than by drawing them to Himself! For this He has instituted prayer, sprinkled the mercy-seat with the blood of His Son, and sends the sweet promise and grace of His Spirit to invite and draw the disconsolate to Himself. A Christian when he is beaten out of all other comforts, has a God to run unto. A wicked man beaten out of earthly comforts, is as a naked man in a storm, and an unarmed man in the field, or as a ship tossed in the sea without an anchor, which presently dashes upon rocks or falls upon quicksands. But a Christian when he is driven out of all comforts below, no, when God seems to be angry with him; he can appeal from God angry to God appeased. He can wrestle and strive with God by God's own strength, can make use of His own weapons, and plead with God by His own arguments. What a happy estate is this! Who would not be a Christian, if it were but for this, to have something to rely on when all things else fail?
Approach, then, disconsolate soul! and pour out your sorrow to God in prayer. Your God is upon the throne of grace, and "waits that he may be gracious unto you." Then, "you shall weep no more: he will be very gracious unto you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you." Why are you then cast down? Trust in God- grace will be above nature, God above the devil, the Spirit above the flesh. Be strong in the Lord; the battle is His, and the victory ours beforehand. If we fought in our own cause and strength, and with our own weapons, it would be as nothing. But as we fight in the power of God, so are we kept by that mighty power through faith unto salvation. It lies upon the faithfulness of Christ, to put us into that possession of glory which He has purchased for us: therefore, charge your soul to make use of the promises and rely upon God for perfecting the good work that he has begun in you. Corruptions are strong, but stronger is He who is in us, than the corruption that is in us. When we are weak in our sense, then are we strong in Him who perfects strength in our weakness, felt and acknowledged. Our corruptions are God's enemies as well as ours; and, therefore, in trusting to Him, and fighting, we may be sure He will take our part against them.
Permit, in closing, A WORD OF AFFECTIONATE CAUTION AND COUNSEL. Take heed that it is God, and not man, who comforts you- that your consolation is divine, and not human. It may be the duty of your minister and the privilege of your friend to speak a promise to the ear, and to spread out before you the riches of divine comfort in the word; but it is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit alone to apply the promise, and to give a heartfelt possession of those comforts. Jealous of His love to you, and of the glory that belongs to Himself, God will delegate the office and commit the power of lightening the burden of your oppressed spirit, of soothing the sorrow of your disconsolate heart, to no created hand. "I, even I, am he that comforts you." "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you."
Beware, then, of a creature comfort, and of a false peace. Let no one comfort you but God Himself, and let nothing give you peace but the peace-speaking blood of Jesus. A wound may be covered, and yet not be healed; a promise may be spoken, and yet not be applied. To the God of all comfort, then, repair in your grief. To the precious blood of the Incarnate God go with your burden of sin. Oh, how welcome will you be, coming just as you are! How sacred will be your sorrow to His heart, how eloquent your pleadings to His ear, and how precious in His sight the simple childlike faith that severs you from all other dependences, and leads you to Him alone for comfort! Then will you exclaim- and not David's harp could discourse sweeter music- "My heart trusted in him, and I am helped. You have turned my mourning into dancing: you have taken off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise unto you, and not be silent. I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live."
In each season of casting down, ascend your watch-tower in the full expectation of an especial blessing. This would seem to be the order of God: "When men are cast down, then you shall say, There is lifting up." Expect great mercies through the medium of great trials; great comforts through great sorrows; deep sanctification from deep humiliation. All the trying dispensations of God in the histories of His people are preparatory to their greater grace. It was in this school the distinguished Apostle of the Gentiles was taught the greatest and holiest lesson of his life. Descending from the third heaven, all fragrant with its odors and glowing with its light, he was plunged into the deepest humiliation, in order that he might be instructed more thoroughly in that truth which he could not experimentally have learned even in Paradise itself- the sufficiency of Christ's grace to sustain the believer in the deepest trial.
Tried believer! Suffering saint! expect an especial blessing to your soul. If the Lord has led you in by the north gate, He will lead you out by the south gate. Dark though the cloud may be, and painful the path, have patience in your affliction, and God will give you a happy issue out of all your troubles. "Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end shall greatly increase." And, O blessed result, if sin is embittered, if holiness is sweetened, if some tyrant corruption is mortified, if communion with God is quickened, if Jesus is endeared, if your Father in heaven is glorified! "Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
"My Father, O my Father, hear
Your poor unworthy child!
It is in Jesus I draw nigh,
In Jesus reconciled.
Bow down Your ear, my Father, bow;
No one can comfort me, but Thou."
"My Father, O my Father, hear!
In Him I venture nigh,
Who on the cross my sorrows bare,
Who sighs whenever I sigh.
Bow down Your ear, my Father, bow;
No one can comfort me, but Thou."
"My Father, O my Father, hear!
Strait is my thorny road;
Yet if I weep, ah! let no tear
Repine against my God.
Bow down Your ear, my Father, bow;
No one can comfort me, but Thou."
"My Father, O my Father, hear
This fickle heart control;
And let no idol love be there
O sanctify the whole!
Bow down Your ear, my Father, bow;
No one can comfort me, but Thou."
"My Father, O my Father, hear!
Subdue this self in me;
Let nothing that's dear, however dear,
Be dear compared with Thee.
Bow down Your ear, my Father, bow;
No one can comfort me, but Thou."
"My Father, O my Father, hear!
Possess me with Your love;
May I but glorify You here,
Then live with You above.
Bow down Your ear, my Father, bow;
No one can comfort me, but Thou."
"My Father, O my Father, hear!
And shall Your bosom be
My dwelling, while I sojourn here,
My home eternally?
Bow down Your ear, my Father, bow;
No one can comfort me, but Thou."
"And shall I see Your face,
Low at Your footstool lie,
Forever rest in Your embrace,
In perfect purity?
Thine ear, my Father, You do bow;
Yes, You do comfort, none but Thou."
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