Words of Consolation

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Are You Bereaved? Stricken by the hand of God! Is your heart's best earthly treasure torn away? It is but the touch of the loving, tender hand of your heavenly Father! Some are disposed to question God's goodness and love in bereavement, and they petulantly say, "Why has God done this?" There was a good Shepherd who had prepared costly food in his fold for his sheep, but the sheep would not enter. He gave himself much concern to induce them to enter, but they always retreated further backward from the open door; then he took a lamb from the fold, and dragged it in; and behold the flock ran in after it. So Jesus, the good Shepherd, has taken your loved one from you, to allure you heavenward. Sorrowful reader, learn to recognize a Father's love in this trial. Take heed, and be quiet, and seek grace to be calm as an infant in its parent's arms — for our God does all things well. His hand is in every event, though we see it not. "I have none but God left," said a poor widow, who had been freely pouring out her troubles to an aged friend. She was dressed in black, while her face had in it a mournful and anxious expression — but the relating of her sorrows seemed to give relief to her heart. By the poor widow's account, she had passed through deep waters of affliction, and endured, as she said, "more than her share of trouble." One of her two children had been drowned, and the other was then in a lunatic asylum; she had lost her brother and sister, and only three weeks before had buried her husband, being left alone, and in poverty. 18 of 28
"Everything seems to have melted away!" said she, "and I have none but God left now." "When we can trust our all with God, In trial's fearful hour, Bow all resigned beneath the rod, And bless His sparing power; A joy springs up amid distress, A fountain in the wilderness." We are sorrowing for those who are taken from us by death. We look at the lifeless form — at those limbs so motionless; at those eyes once sparkling with life, now closed in death. We think of the voice so often heard in the home, now hushed and still. The idol of our heart has been taken, and we are bowed down greatly, we "go mourning all the day long." How consoling should the thought be to the mourner, that the sting of death is taken away from the soul that trusts in Jesus! He is the Resurrection and the Life — He has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. He has lain in the grave before us — should we not then think on the dead, and hope that the loved one is not lost — but only gone before us? Let the poet's words of resignation comfort you: Dear as you were, and justly dear, We will not weep for thee; One thought shall check the starting tear, It is, that you are free! And then shall faith's consoling power The tears of love restrain; 19 of 28
Page 1 and 2: 1 of 28
Page 3 and 4: Are You Sick? The trial of sickness
Page 5 and 6: It may be that your Heavenly Father
Page 7 and 8: Darkness comes over me — My rest
Page 9 and 10: A lady who had just sat down to bre
Page 11 and 12: SCRIPTURE READING "When the poor an
Page 13 and 14: Are You Perplexed? There once lived
Page 15 and 16: A traveler in Switzerland was summo
Page 17: HYMN. 'Is this the way, my Father?'
Page 21 and 22: the brokenhearted, to comfort all w
Page 23 and 24: They are not lost, but gone before.
Page 25 and 26: "O that our faith could firmly hold
Page 27 and 28: Be hushed, my dark spirit, the wors

Words of Consolation

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