This golden truth becomes most precious to the soul, when, in the midst of losses and crosses, by the Holy Spirit’s influence, the power of it is felt in the soul. A confident belief in the fact that Jesus is not an unconcerned spectator of our tribulation, and a confident assurance that he is in the furnace with us, will furnish a downy pillow for our aching head. When the hours limp slowly along, how sweet to reflect that he has felt the weariness of time when sorrows multiplied! When the spirit is wounded by reproach and slander, how comforting to remember that he also once said, ‘Reproach has broken my heart!’ And, above all, how abundantly full of consolation is the thought that now, even now, he feels for us, and is a living head, sympathising in every pang of his wounded body. The certainty that Jesus knows and feels all that we endure, is one of the delicacies with which afflicted souls are comforted. More especially is this a cheering thought when our good is spoken of as evil, our motives misrepresented, and our zeal condemned. Then, in absence of all other balms, this acts as a sovereign remedy for decay of spirit. Give us Christ with us, and we can afford to smile in the face of our foes.
From “Jesus in the Hour of Trouble,” Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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