Not so in haste, my heart! He never comes too late. He never comes too late, Until he cometh, rest, Nor grudge the hours that roll; The feet that wait for God Are soonest at the goal. Are soonest at the goal That is not gained by speed; Then hold thee still, my heart, For I shall wait his lead. Bradford Torrey. CHAPTER III How Christ Comforts His Friends HE little Twenty-third Psalm is the most familiar portion of the Bible and is oftenest read. It has comforted more sorrow than any other composition the world possesses. Next to it the Fourteenth Chapter of John is the best known of all the Scriptures. It is a chapter of comfort. How many tears it has dried! To how many sorrowing hearts has it brought peace! Its words were first spoken to a company of broken-hearted friends who thought they never could be comforted. It is well to study how Jesus, the truest comforter the world ever has known, consoled his friends. Look at the way Jesus comforts his disciples. First of all, in that saddest of all hours he bade them not to be troubled. Yet they were about to lose their best friend. How could they but be troubled? He comes to his friends to-day in their bereavement with the same word: "Let not your heart be troubled." This is not mere professional consolation. As Jesus saw it that night, there was no reason why the disciples should be troubled. As Jesus sees it, there is no reason why you should be troubled, even though you are watching your dearest friend pass away in what you call death. It is only the earth side of the event that you see, and it seems terrible to you. The friends of Jesus thought they were losing him and for ever. He had been a wonderful friend. He had a rich nature, a noble personality, power to love deeply, capacity for unselfish friendship, and was able to inspire us to all worthy life. The disciples thought they were about to lose all that. You think you are losing all friendship's best in the departure of your friend. Yet Jesus, looking upon his disciples and looking upon you, bids you not to be troubled. Death is not an experience which harms the believing one who passes through it. The Christian mother who died this afternoon is not troubled and in sorrow where she is to-night. Dying has not disturbed her happiness-she never was happier than she is now. Leaving her children behind has not broken her heart nor filled her with distress and anxiety concerning them. As she looks upon them from her new point of view, on death's other side, there is no cause for grief or fear. They are in the divine care which is so loving, so wise, so gentle, and so far-reaching, that she has not a shadow of uncertainty regarding them. The children are in distress because they have lost their mother who has been so much to them. They cannot endure the thought of going on without their mother's love and tenderness, her guidance and shelter. Yet the Master says to them: "Do not be troubled." He means that if they understood all that has taken place as he understands it, if they knew what dying has meant to their mother, and what the divine love will mean to them in the days to come, they would not be troubled. What seems to them calamity would appear |