A Book of Comfort written by P.B. Power. Introduction. Amongst the many wonderful truths which are spoken of God in the Bible, one of the most wonderful and beautiful is that He is a God of comfort. Comfort is such a soothing word in itself that the moment we hear of it in connection with God We are led to expect great things, some cheering, some lifting up, some refreshment, some ease, some lightening of our trouble, something very good. There are sick beds without God, and then of course there can be little comfort. No wonder that the days are long and dreary, and the nights full of blackness. When a man has to bear his trouble alone, when he has no God to talk with to him, when, if he does think of God at all, it is only with fear, lest this illness may bring him into His presence, or else with discontent, thinking that it is He who has laid this upon him. These pages are not written for such as want to have a sickbed without God, except indeed to show them a more excellent way, Should this little book fall into the hands of such a one, then it says, Dear friend, you cannot help being ill, being in bed, or on the sofa, or even in an armchair. For many people on sofas and in armchairs are quite as ill, and quite as much to be pitied, and quite as much in need of comfort as those who cannot stir from their beds. But you can help being as unhappy as you are. All these circumstances need not be comforted-less. They are so only because you shut God out from them. But what about God being a God of comfort? Everything depends upon that. You who do not look to Him, and you who do, are the one as badly off as the other. unless God be a God of comfort now for all our sakes the first and best thing to do will be to see what his word says about him because there first and in the experiences of his people next we are to find him and if we find him to be this God of comfort then you have misjudged him hitherto when you thought him an enemy an unkind and a judge and an avenger and nothing else now and henceforth be encouraged to think of him in a new light speak good of his name says the psalmist that is what I want to do in the forefront of this little book because if you can be persuaded to think good of him you shall have all the benefits spoken of here and I should like every sick one who reads these pages to get all the blessing to be richly comforted Blessed Lord, this is a book of comfort, and that it may be so indeed. First, we must be sure of what Thou art. O Thou most worthy Judge Eternal, we have no comfort in ourselves, and unless Thou hast revealed Thyself as a comforting God, we could have had none in Thee. Thy justice and power and majesty are no comfort to us if they are alone. For we are only vile earth and miserable sinners. It is what thou tellest us of thyself that gives us any joy. We would not presume to look for comfort in the direction of thyself if thou hadst not pointed out to us the way. But now that thou hast done this, from thee and the things concerning thee alone shall come our comfort and our peace. Yes, from Thee, O Holy Ghost, the Comforter, by whom the Father's peace pervades the soul, show Thyself to us as Thou art in Thy Word. Comfort us with the kindness that there is in Thyself, and speak peace to all the readers of this book, for the sake of the Great Peacemaker, the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ Himself. Amen. Is God a God of comfort at all? Chapter 1. The question at the head of this chapter must be settled before this little book can be to its readers what our earnest desire it should be. That is a book of comfort. For many a sick man will say The last place where I can seek for comfort is with God. Is not this the great God who is full of power and majesty? Is not this the one who made heaven and earth? Why should I think that he will concern himself about such a small affair as mine? And even if we think that he will, we are inclined to say, is not this the one I have offended, whose laws I have broken? whose calls I have rejected, who is of purer eyes than to behold inequity. And when I call to mind what I have been and what I am, surely he is the last one I ought to go to for comfort. All this is quite reasonable. I should not have a word to say against it, and I myself, instead of trying to write a comfort book, should have to give myself up to entire despair, if it were not that God had told me certain things in his word about himself, which warrant me in making my comfort book, and in saying to everyone who reads it, it is all for you, all my dear friend, without any abatement or reservation, all for you. God wills you to be comforted, and that comfort he wills you to have, by having himself. so far from God's not willing you to come to himself for comfort what he speaks most plainly about is against your going anywhere else he knows you are in need of comfort one from one cause and another from another every man's trouble is not the same and even if it were the same it does not touch on the same point precisely or in the same way but whatever it is and however it works the cry is that we should not forsake him the fountain of living waters and who out for ourselves broken cisterns which can hold no water scripture tells us that God is a jealous God and he is not only jealous of a man's worshipping any other God but if he is being put second in anything and amongst other things in comforting no doubt there is a comfort to be had from friends and from books and from the visits of ministers and from many other sources but they must all be put under God otherwise they will be like Job's comforters miserable comforters are you y'all they will give way in some unexpected time and manner and leave us with nothing because we had not God. But let us see from Holy Scripture how God himself appears in this matter of comfort. Do we find him plainly here? Saint Paul tells us very plainly what God himself is in this way. He had just been wishing grace and peace two very comfortable things to the Corinthian church And where were these to come from? From God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the Apostle, as though he could not restrain himself when he came to speak of these good things as coming from the Father, breaks out into this grand description of praise to Him. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation to Corinthians chapter 1 verses 2 and 4 then further on in chapter 12 verses 5 and 6 he gives us an example of how God comforted the comfort came by human hand it came at a most seasonable time for trials just then were very heavy but it came from God and Paul distinctly traced God in the way in which his comfort came I am filled he says with comfort I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation for when we were come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side without our fighting within were fierce nevertheless God that comforted those that are cast down note that phrase it just suits you comforted us by the coming of Titus God had his own times and ways of comforting I would now only just draw your attention to the fact that the Apostle speaks of him as one who is in the habit of comforting those who are cast down it comes in quite naturally and not as something strange and wonderful and out of the way which had happened here that may never happen again some people speak of God as though there is no comfort in Him at all and that Jesus is to comfort us by enabling us to escape from God but the Apostle Paul saw the Father and the Son both one in this blessed work of comfort and if there is no other verse in the Bible to comfort a poor soul then the 16th and 17th verses of the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians ought to do so they ought to bring a man to God himself for comfort now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God even our Father which has loved us and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work the psalmist a man as you know of many troubles found his comfort in God himself not in running away from him but in coming to him it was upon what God said that David relied and if that had not been something comfortable it would have been of no use to him remember the word unto thy servant unto which thou hast caused me to hope this is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickened me Psalms 119 49-50 and again he says in verse 76 let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according to thy word unto thy servant the 86th Psalm is a great mingling together of light and darkness there are very deep things there the soul is spoken of even as being delivered from the lowest hell. But God is equal to all the need. David asked to have his soul made to rejoice. And to whom does he look to do this? To God. And because he did, he found the help and comfort that he sought. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me, give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. Show me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed, because thou, Lord, hast opened me and comforted me. When David was utterly perplexed, he said, in the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Psalms 94 and 19 and when the time of all times for comfort should come then God as the God of all comfort would be at hand yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalms 23.4 now let us look for a moment at the prophets for it will be a grand help to us if we have it firmly grafted in our minds that God himself is the one to go to in our search after comfort Zion had sinned greatly against the Lord and according to the usual role of God's dealings after the sin comes punishment Zion ought never to have known waste places or a desert or a wilderness and certainly considering what Jerusalem had done against God he might naturally have been supposed to be the last quarter in which she should seek for any comfort but the word which the Lord told the prophet to speak was a word after his fashion and not after man's for the Lord shall comfort Zion he shall comfort all her waste places and he shall make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving in the voice of melody Isaiah 51.3 observe how God is acting with the largeness which is becoming to himself whenever there is a great largeness of blessing we may be sure that it is he that is at work for his work has a fullness of blessing like a number and variety of precious stones all set in the one ring and given to the one person this is God's way of comforting The angel of the Lord in Zechariah chapter 1 cried to God on behalf of Jerusalem and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? The angel does not hide the fact that the one he cried to is the one who had in righteous judgment permitted all the trouble. Yet from that very one comes the comfort. And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good works and comfortable words. And here, as in the other case, comes the perfusion of his mercy. Thus said the Lord of hosts, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built in it, said the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad, and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. Similarly in Jeremiah he says of himself, For I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them. Chapter 31 verse 13, And will speak comfortably unto her, he says in Hosea, 2.14 I am He that comforteth you he says in Isaiah 51.12 and in the day of Thanksgiving this is to be the song Isaiah 12.1 O Lord I will praise Thee though Thou wast angry with me Thine anger is turned away and Thou comfortest me for the inequity of his covetousness was I wrought and smote with I hid me and was wrought and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart I have seen his ways and I will heal him I will lead him also and restore comfort unto him and to his mourners Isaiah 57 verses 17 and 18 Many of these texts will meet again. I desire them now to be of use in this one blessed particular of bringing us nearer to God Himself. And these three things I set out in the forefront of my little book. 1. Get firmly convinced that God, God Himself, God the Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Father, is a God of comfort. Read these many declarations which He has given of Himself over and over again until you ingrain the idea into your hearts. Believe that comfort is a thing He thinks about, values, knows the need of it to us. 2. Do not look anywhere else for your prime and first comfort. I do not deny that there is much comfort in friends, in happy feelings, in books, in many of the surrounding circumstances which prove alleviations in illness. But I want you to gather in your thoughts and feel that the only sure comfort is with God. 3. Expect comfort from God. Man's expectation is generally a prelude to God's action. we must first open our mouth and then he will fill it we must fill the water pots up to the brim saying that he is going to turn all this water into the good wine let these texts put you into the proper attitude of expectation say speak Lord for thy servant heareth let God know that there is somebody looking to him for comfort some poor child of his unsatisfied and in want and that it is you and who knows that even in the very pages of this little book he may give you all you need chapter 2 hindrances to our believing that God is a God of comfort When the sun shines brightly, its warm beams draw up the damp fogs from the earth, and they often obscure its luster. When a lamp is lit, the brighter it shines, the more the insects that gather around it. And so the brighter any truth of God, the more does Satan endeavor to gather about it such myths as will obscure it. if indeed he cannot extinguish it altogether. And so we may expect to find that there are many hindrances to a full belief that God is a God of comfort. I am not in any wise surprised that it should be so, and I would be instrumental by God's blessing in removing them. But before we can remove these hindrances, we must see them. And what are they? one great hindrance is our sense of demerit how very unworthy we are of comfort at all and especially of such and one as God taking it in hand to comfort us about that unworthiness there cannot be the shadow of a doubt it is quite right that you should feel that you are not worthy of anything good from God at all so far from finding fault with the feeling It is a blessed one to start with. And if unhappily you had it not, I should have had to say, we cannot advance even the first step into God's comfort until we get to see and believe this. For God will not have any man talk or think of merit. Merit I have none. Only to the cross I cling. those are the sentiments of such as are fit for comfort and are sure to get it so now first of all be very thankful that you feel undeserving of any comfort or any else that is good that in itself should bring you some comfort for if you feel this you have not to go through all the humbling and teaching dealings of God by which he takes pride out of people if you are already empty God has not to empty you and let me tell you further that if you had not felt so unworthy of comfort there is no telling what discipline you might not have had to go through you might have been made ten times more uncomfortable than you are now the law of God has broken And you, as a breaker, might have been shown in such terrible colors as to break you up altogether. You might have been brought into deeper waters in the way of illness, even than those in which you are now. I am glad God has not to deal more heavily with you on that point. He filleth the hungry with good things, but the rich He sends away empty. this poor man cried unto the Lord and the Lord delivered him out of all of his troubles I am no more worthy to be called thy son there was a sense of demerit in the prodigal and we know how blessedly it ended with him well if you are the hungry man and the poor man and the prodigal son so you shall be filled and delivered and received There is something else which you will be sure to find hindering you from believing that God can possibly be a God of comfort to you. You know that you have a depraved, suspicious nature. As soon as Adam failed, he became suspicious of God. In all his prosperity have inherited this suspicion from him. Indeed, suspicion is a part of the temptation. with which Eve was first assailed for when Satan told her that God did not know that in the day she and Adam ate of the tree then their eyes should be opened and they should be as gods knowing good and evil what is this but infusing a suspicion into the woman's mind that God grudged her this knowledge and was afraid of her becoming like himself this element of suspicion was strong in the first temptation and it has continued strong ever since therefore it is no wonder if you suspect God and have hard thoughts of Him now here is an evil plain and well-defined against which we must fight we must not be always suspecting God if He says one thing to us we must not think He means another we must not suppose that He is double-minded in any of His ways we must say to ourselves he said so and so and therefore he means it I will take him at his word I will not go about seeking to put two or three meanings on his plain declarations what he says I will take in the plain English of it we must not go about looking for double meanings and limitations and all sorts of things out of the common. The more we keep in the common road of speech and meaning with God the better. Now think of that dear friend and do not suspect God anymore. It is partly because of this suspicion that we misunderstand God and wherever there is misapprehension there is confusion and trouble. There is one more hindrance out of many which I would mention and that is the old bad habit of not looking to him for what is good this old suspicious and misunderstanding nature of ours used to make us think that God was the last person to whom we could look for what was good if we wanted judgment and anger for sin and punishment and such like things then he was the quarter in which to look for it, but certainly not for good things. And yet when he revealed himself to Moses, what do we read as his glory? When the Israelites were under the divine hand suffering severely from God himself for their sin, what, humanly speaking, could be more unlikely than that from God himself should come their help? Yet see what it is said in Deuteronomy 4, 27-31. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number among the heathen. Whither the Lord shall lead you? And there you shall serve God, the work of man's hand, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. Now, whence are they to find help? they are to look to Him for it but if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find Him if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul when thou art in tribulation and all these things come upon thee even in the latter days if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shall be obedient unto his voice for the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee neither destroy thee nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he swear unto them what God says as plainly as possible is this you have offended against me but it is to me you must look O Israel, said he in Hosea 13.9, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help. But perhaps he say, I never thought much of God, I never used to look to Him. Well, that has been very bad in the past. But what we are concerned with is the present. The past is dead and gone, and let the dead bury their dead. We cannot alter the bad and foolish past. It will always remain what it was. But what we are concerned with is that it should not carry itself on into the present. That it should not hurt us now. That it should be indeed a past. Now say to yourself, that this old habit of mine, not looking to God, I must break with it altogether. Let him now make all things new with me. This foolish and ungainful past has no right to put in a claim upon the present. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now when difficulties arise, they are very apt to discourage. That is their natural tendency. A discouraged man is always a weak man. this Satan knows very well and therefore he puts all sorts of discouragements in the way of our going to God for comfort if you find one reason after another rising up in your mind why you should not look to God to comfort you instead of being downhearted say this is the most natural thing in the world precisely what I might have expected this is part of the old bad way which I am abandoning I think Satan must see I am in earnest in looking to God by his raising up so many obstacles in my path I have no doubt my friend that you have a great many discouragements was ever anything great in abiding brought about without them? there are the very atmosphere in which what is great and good and enduring is perfected. Draw courage from discouragement. Say, Satan sees I am on the right road now and is trying to hinder me all he can. Straight is my gate and narrow is my way and that is a good sign that the end of that way is right. You must not simply condemn yourself. You have done that once. Let it be once and for all. If you spend all your time condemning yourself, you will have none to spend in finding God. I do not believe that God is well pleased with a man spending all his time in self-condemnation. He wills him to live in the spirit of self-condemnation. How indeed can he live in anything else? to be always moaning and condemning himself I cannot think is what he wills as his people's lot I think God might well say to us what? all looking at self and never a look at me what? look at me and never a bit of comfort out of it are your sins of more importance than my grace? Are they to occupy all the ground, in no room to be left for me to act in comfort and blessing, the way in which I love to act? Be sure of this, something more than your sins must be manifested if God is to be glorified. He will be more glorified by your being comforted, than by your continually refusing to be comforted, or crying out that you are unworthy to be comforted. Self-condemnation is very good in its place, but it's very bad out of its place. And it is out of its place when we make it so big that it can blot out the comfort of God. We may put a penny piece so close to our eyes as to hide out the sun itself. And we may put our little selves into such a position as to blot out God. Moreover, you must not give up in this matter of comfort, or in any point of the divine life, because you do not seem to get on. Often we are getting on, when we do not know that we are. God never changes, nor are His mercies dependent upon our getting on. This is a measuring of ourselves by ourselves, and such is not the measure of the Lord. Nor must you give way to low and desponding thoughts because you do not experience any spiritual ecstasies. There are many children of God who have never known anything approaching to spiritual ecstasy at all, nor attaining to anything beyond a calm and peaceful trust in Him. They still lay on their beds in peace. They believed in the glory to be revealed. They believed in a future and were content to wait for it. Ecstasies might be very bad for us here. Some of the most favoured servants of God and most consistent Christians never had any ecstasy in their lives. And some who had gone up very high in ecstasies have gone down very low in despondencies. Do not court ecstasies. Do not look upon them as signs. Do not consider them in any way as essential to the Christian life or the comfort thereof. If God gives them, it needs that He give grace with them. And who knows but that it needs that He give discipline too. Paul was caught up into the third heaven. and heard words which it was not lawful to utter. And to make that ecstasy safe, he had to receive a thorn in the flesh, which, though he prayed thrice for its removal, was not taken away. Lay your account for being a hindered man, and when clouds come between you and God, often say, Ah, that is a hindrance. It does not change God. It does not change my position toward God. But it is a hindrance. And it's doing a hinderer's work. And when the hindrances come, let them not daunt us. Let us say, these are what we are to expect. But they have no power as against the Lord. Millions of hindered men have passed out of their clothes in sorrows. Millions have entered the land where there are hindrances no more. How could I expect that Satan would allow me to have any good thing unmolested? I must carry on the Christian warfare on my bed, the same as if I were in the world. Sooner or later I too shall have my full triumph and shall shout thanks be to God which giveth me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ chapter 3 helps to our believing that God is a God of comfort it would be a poor comfort to point out the existence of hindrances unless we believe that they could be overcome and also could show how this might be done. Alas, the poor tried man might say, I know my hindrances only too well. Help me to put them out of the way, and then you will confer on me a favor indeed. This is what I should like now to do. This is a fitting part of a comfort book. Now, One of the most effectual ways of getting rid of these hindrances is to track them out and ascertain whence they came. I have no doubt many of them come from certain depraved thinking about God and consequently the help should come from thinking also only of the right kind. We must keep close to thoughts of God. We must meet Satan's dark thoughts and suggestions about God. with bright thoughts about Him for if we do not He will always be able to bring God up terribly against us however we may divert our minds the evil one will always keep saying but ah what about God all is not right with Him and what is more all never can be but if we have gone to God and have well assured thoughts of Him then God can never come before us as a dark shadow but as light we shall know him as the Father indeed and if Satan comes to vex us with thoughts about him we shall say we know who he is our Father who is in heaven I consider then God's character as my great help to believing him to be a God of comfort and first of all from the mere fact of his being generous we may judge that he is very likely to be a God of comfort everywhere in scripture he is represented to us as a large hearted God he is one that has no pleasure in the death of a sinner but would rather that he turned from his inequity and lived he says open thy mouth wide and I will fill it The sins and inequities of my people I will remember no more. How much more generous God is than man! We have remarkably set before us in what he says to the Prophet Jeremiah, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. Jeremiah 3, 6 and 7. Others would have said, Be gone. But God said, Return. That was generosity indeed. In the first verse of this chapter, God shows that man's way of treating a person under similar circumstances would be very different. But then he is God and not man. And his ways and thoughts are not like our ways and thoughts. His generosity is altogether beyond ours. Happening to open the concordance this moment, I came upon five texts. One after another where God is spoken of as being entreated with the success After that God was entreated for the land. 2 Samuel 24 14 The Lord was entreated for the land and the plague was stayed. 2 Samuel 24 25 They cried and He was entreated of them. 1 Chronicles 5 20 Manasseh prayed and God was entreated of him. 2 Chronicles 33 13 We besought God and He was entreated of us. God is long-suffering, plenteous in goodness and mercy. And in the parable of the prodigal son, generous dealing is shown to the very full. The father receives the wretched sinner just as he is, and reproaching him not, restores him to favor, and clothes him in the best robe, and kills for him the fatted calf now if I want anything it is a great encouragement to me in going to ask for it that I know I have to deal with a generous person I feel he will be predisposed to help me and to deal liberally with me and to do me good and let this thought comfort you there is not one my good word about God in all the Bible you will be sure to get from him simply because he is what he is whatever he has promised to bestow and if God be generous then he will be self-communicative that is he will be always outputting good God is not content with simply having his goodness and keeping it to himself his spirit not his only son but freely gave him up for all of us and how shall he not with him also freely give us all things if we had to go to a person for anything who is actually wanting to give away the very things we needed what wonderful spirit it would put into us to go to him for what we required now can God have all that would make us happy and comfortable and bestow never a taste on us certainly not therefore if you want he will communicate himself to you and what he communicates must be himself must be like himself and therefore it must be good it will be the giving of himself to you as you are and if you're particular want He will pour his streams into all your hollow places, all your dry wells, and only parched lands, and empty watercourses, where you are driest and most in want is the place where he will most surely come. Then we may take great comfort from considering that God stands to us in the relation of a father, and for as much as he must from his very nature do everything in the best and most perfect manner, and to the fullest extent also, we may be sure he will be to us better than ever any earthly father has been to a son. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available free and for sale in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780 450 3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T-6-L-3-T-5 you may also request a free printed catalog and remember that John Kelvin in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devise. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God, by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind. As though he had said, That men assume too much wisdom, When they devise what he never required, Nay, what he never knew.