Section 12

Christian Growth and Experience

Chapter 125.

Comfort in Affliction

1. ARE God's people free from affliction?
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." Ps. 34:19.

2. How does God regard the afflicted?
"He heareth the cry of the afflicted." Job 34:28.

3. What has He promised to be to those in trouble?
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. 46:1.

4. With what feelings does the Lord look upon His children?
"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." Ps. 103:13.

5. What does He know and remember?
"For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." Verse 14.

6. What has the Lord promised to be to the oppressed?
"The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble." Ps. 9:9.

7. What has God promised His children when passing through trials and. afflictions?
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Isa. 43:2.

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8. What did David say with reference to his being afflicted?
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes." Ps. 119:71.

9. When afflicted, for what did he pray?
"Look upon my affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins." Ps. 25:18.

10. Before he was afflicted, what did he do?
"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word." Ps. 119:67.

11. What did Christ learn through suffering?
"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." Heb. 5:8.

12. In perfecting character, what must come to all?
"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." Heb. 12:5,6.

13. Is this chastening a pleasant experience?
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Verse 11.

14. What courage and strength, therefore, should come to us even in the hour of affliction?
"Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." Verse 12. See also Job 4:3,4; Isa. 35:3.

15. What did Job say in the midst of his afflictions?
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Job 13:15.

16. What is God called in the Scriptures?
"The God of all comfort." 2 Cor. 1:3.

17. Whom does God comfort?
"God, that comforteth those that are cast down." 2 Cor. 7:6.

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18. What promise is made to those that mourn?
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." Matt. 5:4.

19. Why does God comfort us in tribulation?
"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be
able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 2 Cor. 1:4.

NOTE.-One who has passed through trouble and affliction himself, and received comfort from God, is better able to minister comfort to others.

20. How should we sympathize with others in their sorrows?
"Weep with them that weep." Rom. 12:15. "To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend." Job 6:14.

21. Does Jesus sympathize with us in our afflictions?
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are." Heb. 4:15.

22. How did He manifest His sympathy in the case of Mary and her friends weeping over the death of Lazarus?
"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto Him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept." John 11:33-35.

NOTE.-Not alone for Mary and her friends did Jesus weep. Looking down through the ages, He saw the tears and the heartaches which death would bring to mankind in this sin-stricken world. His heart was touched with human woe, and He wept with those that wept.

23. Whatever may come, what blessed assurance has every one who loves God?
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." Rom. 8:28.

NOTE.-If one loves God, he may rest assured that out of every trial and affliction good will come.

24. In bereavement, like whom should we not sorrow? "As others which have no hope." 1 Thess. 4:13.

25. When our friends fall asleep in death, with what words are we told to comfort one another?
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. . . . For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." Verses 14-18.

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26. What promise has God made to bereaved mothers?
"Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy." Jer. 31:16.

27. What did Christ say would be the experience of His people in this world?
"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." "Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." John 16:33, 20.

28. In what respect is the reaping of God's people to differ from their sowing?
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Ps. 126:5,6.

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SOMETIME when all life's lessons have been learned,
And sun and moon forevermore have set,
The things that our weak judgments here have spurned,
The things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet,
Will flash before us, out of life's dark night,
As stars shine most in deepest tints of blue,
And we shall see how all God's ways were right,
And how what seemed reproof was love most true.
MAY RILEY SMITH.

BE of good cheer! I know sometime
Life's song will run in perfect rhyme.
Somewhere, I know, all things will be
Attuned to perfect harmony.
Sometime, somewhere, each sad refrain
Shall be its own surcease of pain.
The compensation love will send
Will be in bringing friend to friend;
And all the heartaches that we bore,
In God's good time will be no more.
ROBERT LEE WALDEN.
 

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