^ Dr. Wilson was a physician of souls, because he had, in a very high degree, what physicians call the cor medicum, and the
* Phillips Brooks.
2 COR. I. 3, 4 19
mens medica — what one of the most famous of them explains as " that gentle womanliness of heart which the sick in depression and pain often desire, look for, and profit by." His warm sympathy gave his voice the tone which tells at a sick-bed, and also, when fitting, that sympathetic silence which is sometimes better than speech, and which made him an attentive listener to a tale of grief that relieved the over-bm^dened heart. " His sympathy," writes one, " was full of tact. He was able to touch the sore places of the heart without hurting the wound. One always felt at one's best when with him." To many he was an under-paraclete through whom the Paraclete fulfilled His Divine mission. For in the language of the New Testament, to console means to play the Paraclete.^
Ask God to give thee skill
In Comfort's art. That thou may'st consecrated be
And set apart Unto a life of sympathy. For heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart ; And comforters are needed much
Of Christ-like touch.2
2. If we would be able to comfort we must ourselves be comforted. They are the expert comforters who have sought and found their comfort in the Lord, They are able to " speak a word in season to him that is weary." They who have been comforted in doubt are the finest ministers to those who are still treading the valley of gloom. They who have been comforted in sickness know just the word which opens the pearly gates and brings to the desolate soul the hosts of the Lord. They who have been comforted in turning from sin and wickedness know just the word to speak to the shrinking prodigal when he is timidly approaching his father's door. Let us get away to our God, let us bare our souls to Him, and let us receive His marvellous gifts of comfort and mercy. And then let us use our glorious wealth in enriching other people and by our ministry bringing them to the heights.
The most painfully tried, the most proved in suffering, the souls that are best acquainted with grief, provided their consola-
^ J. Wells, Life of James Hood Wilson, 237. * A. E. Hamilton.
20 COMFORT
tion has abounded through Christ, are specially called to this ministry. Their experience is their preparation for it. Nature is something, and age is something ; but far more than nature and age is that discipline of God to which they have been submitted, that initiation into the sufferings of Christ which has made them acquainted with His consolations also, and has taught them to know the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Are they not among His best gifts to the Church, those whom He has qualified to console, by consoling them in the fire ?
^ This discipline (doubt as to his being saved) was part, I believe, of a merciful training, to teach him what he could learn effectually no otherwise. It is a discipline through which all who are to guide successfully perplexed consciences and timid Christians are made sooner or later to pass — " that they may be able to comfort them that are in any trouble with the comfort wherewith they themselves are comforted of God." Some have it at the outset of their Christian life, and so are long before they can venture to cherish the hope of salvation; others get so quietly iuto joy and peace in believing, that, as Dr. Kidd said to Mr. Duncan, " they cannot understand the difficulties of others." And some of these never do understand those difficulties. Living in sunshine themselves, they wonder that all other Christians are not as they are, and they die very much as they live — strangers to doubt and fear, but strangers also to much soul-humbling insight into the plagues of their own heart, and to that most entrancing of all Christian experiences, when, after deep, protracted, and apparently hopeless backsliding, they hear a voice saying unto them in melting accents^ " I will heal their back- sliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him," and they are constrained in return to say with Ephraim, " What have I to do any more with idols ? " Mr, Duncan's first Christian experience was indeed very genuine — fresh and beauteous as a new-blown rose sparkling with dew-drops in the morning sun. But it was superficial. It needed deepening, solidifying, invigorating, both for his own sake and for that of others. This he got in a way which, though by no means pecuhar, was in his case intensified to the utmost. Not but that there were in this second experience unsatisfactory elements, as I judge ; but the real and permanent value of that experience was immense.^
^ Livingstone, speaking of his friend, Dr. Philip, " Liberator of the Hottentots " [who, previous to going to South Africa, was a
' David Brown, Memoir of John Duncan, 210.
2 COR. I. 3, 4 21
young Independent minister in Aberdeen], relates that Philip, when in Aberdeen, once visited an old woman in affliction. The youthful pastor began to talk very fair to her of the duty of resignation, trusting, hoping, and all the rest of it. The old woman after listening attentively looked up into his face, and said : " Puir thing, ye ken naething aboot it ! "