| J.R. Miller D.D. | Page 12 |
Life is full of illustrations. A child cries out in the night in terror. It is afraid in the darkness. The mother speaks, thus revealing her presence; and the child is comforted, and in a moment sleeps in peace. A timid one is afraid to go through some gloomy way. One brave and strong and unafraid, says, “I will go with you;”and all fear vanishes, and the timid heart becomes bold. A poor woman in a London hospital was told that she must undergo a painful operation. She was asked if she was willing to submit to it. After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “Yes, I can endure it if Lady Augusta Stanley will sit by me and hold my hand.” “I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”
We know how the presence of a strong, tried, trusted friend comforts us in any place of loneliness or danger. Were you ever in a strange city, where, amid all the throngs on the streets you saw no face you had ever seen before, none in which you perceived any token of recognition? You were oppressed by a dreadful sense of loneliness. Then suddenly you met a friend, one you had known long, and in whom you had confidence. What a sense of comfort this friend’s presence gave you! Instantly your feeling of loneliness vanished. You were no longer afraid. This is the comfort which is described in the wonderful words of this psalm: “I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”
An old Scotch shepherd found much comfort, when dying, in the words of his pastor, who said, “Don’t you know that sometimes, when you were driving the sheep through the valleys, there would be shadows all about you, while there was bright sunshine on the hills above? You are in the shadows now, but there’s sunshine on beyond.” “Oh! that is good,” said the shepherd. “I never saw it that way before. ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.’ Over yonder on the heavenly hilltops the sun is shining.”
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