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經文：「你們的神說，你們要安慰，安慰我的百姓。」（賽40:1） 安慰幫助安慰，這是那位先知所負的使命。世上充滿需要安慰的人，可是如果你要作一個安慰使者，自己必須先受訓練，否則不足勝任。這種訓練的代價極大；因為必須親身嘗過那使人流淚流血的苦楚。 如此你的生活就會變成一間病房，在那裡你可以學習安慰的藝術。你自己必須先受傷，而當那位大醫師替你洗滌、消毒、抹膏、包紮創傷的時候，你就可以學習初步的救護。 你是不是會奇怪：為何要經過那些特別的憂愁時刻？等到十年以後，你才會明白；到那時你會遇見許多人，正受你所經歷過的痛苦。你可以見證自己曾經如何和他們同病，又如何得著醫治；把病情說明了，照著神從前包紮你的方法敷上一點止痛油。到那時，你會明白為甚麼過往受這許多的苦楚，會感謝神所給你的訓練，和預先儲存在你生命中的經歷。--選 神安慰我們，不是要我們享受安慰，乃是要我們作安慰的使者。--喬懷德 Dr. Jowett 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" (Isa. 40:1). Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness. --Selected God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. --Dr. Jowett ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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