At a summer resort, not long since, a clergyman and a lady sat on the porch of the hotel. The lady’s heart was heavily burdened, and she talked of her sorrows to the aged minister, who tried to lead her in her hour of need to the Great Comforter. His efforts seemed to be in vain; the lady had heard all her life of the promise that if a tired soul casts its burden on the Lord, that soul will be sustained, no matter how heavy that burden may be; but she seemed to lack the faith to cast herself upon the Lord.
A half hour later a severe thunderstorm came up in the western sky. With the first flash of lightning the woman, a mother, jumped out of her chair, and ran up and down the piazza, exclaiming, “Where is Freddie? Where is Freddie? He’s so terribly frightened in a thunderstorm, I don’t know what he will do without me.”
A few moments afterward her boy came running up the walk, almost breathless, his face plainly showing the great fear that was in his heart. “O Mother,” he exclaimed, “I was so frightened, I ran just as fast as ever I could to get to you.” The mother sat down, and took the frightened child into her arms. She allayed his fear and quieted him, until his head rested calmly on her loving heart.
The good clergyman stepped up gently, and whispered, “ ‘As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you.’ (Isaiah 66:13).”
“I understand it now,” she replied, as she looked up with tearful face. “I did not trust Him as my boy trusts me, but now I will throw myself into His arms as a little child, and remember His promise, ‘As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you.’ I never felt the depth of divine love as shown in that promise before.”
We may all learn the meaning of this precious promise. We know how full our hearts are of love and sympathy for the little ones who come to us in their hour of trouble and fear, and how tenderly we gather them in our arms and comfort them with our words of love and cheer. Is it not strange that with this sweet, practical demonstration of truth in our daily lives we so often forget the precious promise, and try to struggle on alone with our burdens of sorrow and fear? “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you.”
Susan Teall Perry
The Youth’s Instructor, January 9, 1896