God has a different side of Himself to show to each of us. To the young man He is the Setter of great tasks, the God who asks great sacrifices and gives glorious rewards. You say nothing to the young man about the God of repair, the God of consolation, the God who takes the broken life into His hands and mends it, nothing of that God yet. The time will come for that. And is there anything more touching and pathetic in the history of man than to see how absolutely, without exception, the men and women who start out with only the need of tasks, of duties, of something which can call out their powers, of the smile of God stimulating and encouraging them how they all come, one by one, certainly up to the place in life where they need consolation?
I. God is the Consoler of men by the very fact of His existence. It is because God is that man is bidden to be at peace. Although we live petty and foolish lives, the knowledge that there is greatness and wisdom, the knowledge that there is God, is a far greater and more constant consolation to us than we know.
II. But what comes next? The sympathy of this same God, whose existence is already real to us. It becomes known to us, not merely that He is, but that He cares for us. Through God's sympathy we know God more intensely and more nearly, and so all the consolations of God's being become more real to us.
III. God has His great truths, His ideas which He brings to the hearts He wishes to console. What are those truths? Education, spirituality, and immortality these seem to be the sum of them. These ideas are the keys to all the mysteries of life, and to the gateways to consolation.
IV. God comes Himself and shows His presence and His power by working the miracle of regeneration upon the soul that has cried out for Him. That is the consummate consolation. Everything leads up to that.
Phillips Brooks, Sermons,p. 98.
References: Job 15 S. Cox, Expositor,1st series, vol. vii., p. 1; Ibid., Commentary on Job,p. 185.Job 16:2. R. Glover, Homiletic Magazine,vol. x., p. 167. Job 16:22. E. J. Hardy, Faint yet Pursuing,p. 138. Job 16-17 S. Cox, Expositor,1st series, vol. vii., p. 100; Ibid., Commentary on Job,p. 197. Job 17:1-3. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vi., p. 70. Job 17:3. Expositor,3rd series, vol. iv., p. 426. Job 17:6. Ibid.,p. 427.