Editorial June 24, 1922 Issue

Divine Comfort

Duncan Sinclair

Doubt was absent from the thought of the psalmist when he wrote, "Thou shalt ... comfort me on every side." Whatever the trouble might seem to be, the comfort of the God of Israel was ever at hand to compensate, console, soothe, cheer, and revive. To those living under the present-day dispensation of Christian Science, it is nothing less than wonderful to think that in those far-off days the love of God was so understood by some as to be practically available for them.

As the Scriptures show, this availability of the goodness of God became a very real thing to some of the prophets, as the truth about the Christ, Truth, crystallized in their thought. It was Isaiah who addressed the people in the words: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned;" and, again: "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ... to comfort all that mourn." The voice was the same as that which afterwards spoke more authoritatively through the Master, Jesus the Christ himself, saying, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."

Every utterance which testified to the fact that God could, and actually did, comfort mankind implied a definite understanding of God's nature, and the presence of certain spiritual qualities in the individual comforted. The words of Jesus, when he comforted his disciples, as it is recorded in the fourteenth chapter of John's gospel, are noteworthy in this respect. "If ye love me, keep my commandments," he said. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth." The keeping of his commandments was precedent to the coming of the Comforter to them,—the Comforter who was "even the Spirit of truth." After Christ Jesus had passed from their midst, great spiritual illumination came to the early church at Pentecost. It was "the Spirit of truth," which in fuller measure descended upon them. Comforted and strengthened thereby, the apostles set about establishing the Christian religion in the lands whereto they were led.

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