Tuesday, December 18, 2012

"YOUR Comforts Delight My Soul!"

I know your sorrows!
(John MacDuff, "The Faithful Promiser")

"I will not leave you comfortless; 
I will come to you."     John 14:18

Blessed JESUS!
How YOUR presence . . .
  sanctifies trial,
  takes loneliness from the chamber
  of sickness, and the sting from
  the chamber of death!

Bright and Morning STAR!
precious at all times,
YOU are never so precious
as in "the dark and cloudy day!"

The bitterness of sorrow is well
worth enduring, to have YOUR promised
consolations. How well qualified, Man
of Sorrows, to be my COMFORTER!
How well fitted to dry my tears,
YOU who shed so many YOURSELF!

What are . . .
  my tears,
  my sorrows,
  my crosses,
  my losses,
compared with YOURS, who shed
first YOUR tears,
and then YOUR blood for me!

Mine are all deserved, and infinitely
more than deserved. How different,
O Spotless LAMB of GOD,
are those pangs which rent 
YOUR guiltless bosom!

How sweet those comforts YOU
have promised to the comfortless,
when I think of them as flowing from . . .
  an Almighty Fellow Sufferer;
  a Brother born for adversity;
  the Friend that sticks closer
than any brother; one who can say,
with all the refined sympathies
of a holy exalted human nature,
"I know your sorrows!"
My soul! calm your griefs! 
There is not a sorrow you can 
experience, but JESUS, 
in the treasury of grace, has 
an exact corresponding solace: 

"In the multitude of the sorrows 
I have in my heart, YOUR
comforts delight my soul!" 
(Psalm 94:19)

    ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

GraceGems has just published Timothy Shay Arthur's 10 page short story, 
"Bear and Forbear".
Must reading for married couples.

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