As we go through times of suffering and sorrow, we inevitably come into contact with those who would seek to comfort us. Some offer true help and true hope while others, unfortunately, do not. In this short but sweet quote, Theodore Cuyler reflects on what we need most in our times of affliction.
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There are some of us who have known what it is to drink bitter draughts of affliction, and to have the four corners of our house smitten by a terrible sorrow. At such times, how hollow and worthless were many of the stereotyped prescriptions for comfort!
“Time must do its work,” was one of them. As if time could bring back the dead, or cruelly eradicate the beloved image from the memory!
“Travel,” is another of these quack recommendations for a wounded spirit. Just as if God had ever made an Atlantic wide enough to carry us out of the reach of heart-breaking misery!
Wretched comforters are they all. The suffering heart heeds not the voice of such charmers, charm they never so wisely.
Never, never have I been able to gain one ray of genuine consolation until I lifted my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh the Almighty help. As soon as I have begun to taste of God’s exceeding great and precious promises my strength has begun to revive. As soon as His everlasting arm got hold around me the burden grew lighter,—yea, it carried me and the load likewise. God opened to me paths of usefulness which were in the line of His service, and also of blessings to my fellow-men. And so help flowed down to me from the hills like the streams that make music from the precipices to one who climbs the Wenzern Alp.