Isaiah 66:13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. There are glimpses here and there in the writings of St. Paul, revealed by subtle delicacies of speech, which more than suggest that the Motherhood of God was a flitting presence of grace and tenderness in his thought. We recall how when he wrote to the Thessalonian Church, he turned for a time from ministering the needed tonic of rebuke to the sweeter ministry of the comfort of hope. Our version reads: "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." St. Paul wrote: "Them also which have been laid to sleep by Jesus will God bring with Him." "Laid to sleep by Jesus." There is a picture in the words — a homely and familiar one. The day is done. The tiny feet of children, which all day long have pattered to and fro within the home, are tired. As the darkness falls their prattle grows drowsy. Then they are hushed to sleep in the mother's arms, and laid in their cradle-bed until morning. We see it all. We are God's children of an older growth. While it is called day we spend our strength in toils and journeyings. As the shadows lengthen we grow aweary. It is time to rest. In the arms of the Mother-God, who stoops over us in the Saviour's condescending ways, we arc put to sleep, and laid in stillness to rest "until the day break, and the shadows flee away." Perhaps even more literally than we thought, our dead "die into the arms of God." (F. Platt.) Parallel Verses KJV: As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.WEB: As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem." |
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