SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1, 27 April 1912, Page 2

SUNDAY COLUMN.

CHRIST’S PHILOSOPHY OF COMFOiIT. (By Dr. Albert Banks.) John 14: 1-27. The world is sick at .heart with sorrow and trouble. Religion is medicine lor the soul. Jesus Christ said he was a physician. He came to comfort the sorrows of humanity. I want to lay the emphasis on that verse in this wonderful chapter in which the Master says: “1 will not leave you comfortless.” That is a great declaration. No mere' human being could ever deliberately and honestly make such a promise as that. Many of us love our friends so tenderly and devotedly that we would never leave them comfortless if we could help it; we would gladly suffer any loss for their sake; life itself would seem a slight risk it it might shelter and protect them from sorrow. But the human arm is so weak, and the limitations of our human power arc so imperative, that the most heartbreaking tiling about lift' is that w" cannot always bring comfort to our dear ones in trouble. Lord Rosebery, ox-Primo Minister of England, son-in-law of .Rothschild, who has known what it is to have unlimited wealth at command, says that the greatest pleasure that comes from wealFr is the possibility it gives the possessor, through change of climate and luxurious surroundings and medical skill, to prolong the life of loved ones. And yet. Lord Rosebery lias worn crape for

many yc-ars because wealth b-oyrtml measure and the gentlest climates of earth, and the hest medical skill known in the world, could not save his beloved from the grave. ' Hut Jesus Christ says with all emphasis, “1 will not leave you comfortless.” I. He will not leave us comfortless in our sins. Though our sins be as dark and ungrateful as Peter’s when he denied his Lord in the hour of His greatest emergency and swore he never knew Him, and thereby was plunged into the darkest despair; though our sins be as black as that, if we repent as did Peter the loving Christ will not leave us comfortless. The very first' message that He sent to the disciples by the an,gel after His resurrection had in it a special comforting sentence for Peter. So if your heart is sore on account of your backsliding, and your penitent spirit turns towards Him, you may hear Christ saying to you as tenderly as to the disciple of old : “I will not leave you comfortless.” ii. He will not leave us comfortless in the fears and worries of life. Do you remember the night after the day when He fed the thousands of people -with- the five- loaves and the two fishes? When he went up alone into the Vhdnntains to ; privy-, while the dieiplcs went out in their boat on the lake? The stolen came up in the night and it seemed certain that they would l>o wrecked. In the midst of the storm Jesus, who had been near by watching it all though ,t|vey did not know it, came walking to. them on the waves. When they saw Him they know it looked like Him, but they were frightened and .thought it must he his ghost. But Jesus called out to them ; “It is I, he not afraid.” Are you in the midst of, the storm? Hoes life seem dark and uncertain? He is the same Christ as then. He loves you as tenderly as He loved that little boat-load of dieiplcs. Open yonr heart to Him in yonr sorrow, in yonr fears, and He will not leave you comfortless. HI. He will not leave us comfortless when life draws near its close. We shall not grow old alone; we shall not go alone into the valley of the shadows. We shall not, confront the grim ferryfnan without a companion. How tenderly Christ assures ns on this point: “Let not your heart he troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in mo. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” The whole philosophy of Christ’s comfort lies in the power of personal love. We shall not be comfortless because wo shall have Jesus. Wc shall find Him in our Bible, we shall find Him when we pray, wo shall walk with Him when we carry His burden and wear His voice; we shall come in touch with Him when we minister tw His brothers am! sisters; He will sit at the table of our hearts and we shall have communion with Him day In, day. .Nothing can separate us from tins love of Christ so long as we stand faithful to Him there is no power ii, all the universe strong enough to break that fellowship of love. We may pillow our heads upon His promises, for He has at once the strength, the wisdom and the love to carry out His promises. And when at last onr call comes to go forth into the eternal world it will be the same Christ whom we have known here who will meet us there and with- whom we shall dwell for ever. TABLOIDS. If every person would he half as good as be expects bis neighbour to be, what a heaven this world .would become ! Wrinkles should just show where the smiles have been. There is no sense in always telegraphing to heaven for God to send a cargo of blessings unless we are at the wharf to unload the vessel when it arrives. The best way to see Divine Light is to put out onr own candle. Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered 'ehai'.ieter. Happy is he who acts as Columbus to bis -own soul. Wo may all get to heaven if wo like—but not bow we like. When the great awakening comes

there will no turning over for another ten minutes. To enter heaven a man must take it will) him.