|
「你們的神說，你們要安慰，安慰我的百姓。」（聖經以賽亞書四十章 1 節）
安慰，供給安慰，這是那位先知所負的使命。
世上充滿了需要安慰的人，可是如果你要做一個安慰使者，你自己必須受過訓練，否則不足勝任。這種訓練的代價極大；因為，你必須親身嘗過那種苦楚。這樣，你自己的生活就會變成一間病房，在那裡你可以學習安慰的藝術。
你自己必須先受傷，當那位大醫師替你洗滌、消毒、抹膏、包紮創傷的時侯，你就可以學習初步的救護。
你是不是正在希奇，為什麼你目前會經過一陣特別的憂愁？等到十年以後，你才會明白。那時候你會遇見很多人受你從前所嘗過的痛苦。你可以見證你從前怎樣和他們同病、怎樣得著醫治；把病情說明了，照著神從前包紮你的方法敷上一點止痛油。
那時侯，你會明白為甚麼你從前受這很多的苦楚，你也會感謝神所給你的訓練和替你預先儲蓄在你生命中的經歷。── 選
神安慰我們，不是要我們享受安慰，乃是要我們作安慰的使者。── 喬懷德（Dr. Jowett）
*****************************
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” (Isa. 40:1.)
Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission.
The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere.
Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness. --Selected.
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. -- Dr. Jowett.
"They tell me I must bruise The rose's leaf, Ere I can keep and use Its fragrance brief.
"They tell me I must break The skylark's heart, Ere her cage song will make The silence start.
"They tell me love must bleed, And friendship weep, Ere in my deepest need I touch that deep.
"Must it be always do With precious things? Must they be bruised and go With beaten wings?
"Ah, yes! By crushing days, By caging nights, by scar Of thorn and stony ways, These blessings are!"
|