Editorial December 27, 1924 Issue

The Comfort that is of God

Duncan Sinclair

"The Bible contains the recipe for all healing," writes Mrs. Eddy on page 406 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." And to be healed of some form of distress surely means to be comforted. One may experience the discomfort of disease, or sorrow, or sin; but whatever the seeming inharmony, it can be destroyed by the truth as it is revealed in the Bible. Isaiah tells of God's wonderful tenderness and power to comfort those who are faithful to Him, when he writes, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."

The Bible, then, and especially the New Testament, contains the divine method of comfort. And what is this method? Stated in simplest terms, it consists of obedience to the law of God. "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them," says the Psalmist. If all were obedient to God's law, the law of good,—were absolutely obedient to it,—harmony would reign supreme and discomfort would be unknown. But men at present are at all stages of spiritual development; which is the same as saying that they are obedient to the law of God, good, in very varying degree.

Consider that part of God's law which has to do with moral rectitude,—the Decalogue. Think how men differ in their faithfulness to it. Who is there among them who is strictly obedient, for example, to the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal"? If one were perfectly obedient to that commandment, not only would mean larceny be unknown, but even intentional plagiarism of another's words or works would be unheard of, and the effort would never be wanting to give credit wherever it is due. Whoever breaks the eighth commandment, or any other, is bound to suffer in the degree of his unfaithfulness to it; whoever obeys it, or any other commandment, is blessed with the comfort that is of God in the measure of his faithfulness to it.

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