Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. I speak not from myself, but from that ancient word which is quick and powerful. The weariness you feel, the exhaustion of soul under the lash of racism, this is no small affliction. Yet in affliction, believers have a peculiar comfort. You ask God to strike down the evil and those who perpetrate it, and your cry rises from a heart pressed beyond measure. But know this: God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able. The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous. Their slander, their hateful words, their cruel mockings, these are the waves that leap up around the ship, yet they speed her course heavenward.
I hear your grief that even among professing Christians you find no harbor, but rather censure and silence when you seek comfort. This is bitter indeed; yet persecution in the church, even in the form of venomous spite or having your words taken down and your wounds labelled controversial, helps to keep up the separation between the church and the world. It drives the Christian nearer to his God. How many prayers have been offered up as the result of such opposition that would never have been offered else, heaven alone can tell. Let not this rob you of all comfort. Jesus saith, he will not quench the smoking flax, he will not break the bruised reed.
This is my comfort in my affliction: God's Word has quickened me. It is not the letter, but the Spirit which is our real comfort. When he quickens us, we obtain comfort. And I bid you look also to the future comfort God gives. You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away. By the lapse of time, which is time's own healer in the hand of the Great Physician, and by the brighter glory yet to come, you shall look back on this deep weariness as a thing washed out to sea.
But comfort alone is not sufficient; constancy without comfort will not suffice us. Therefore, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, comfort your heart and establish you in every good word and work. Do not despair. The strong city of God has withstood every bombshell of persecution and every undermining of cunning, and it shall continue. You are part of that city, built upon the Rock. Take this divine message of comfort to your heart, and let it be as an anchor cast overboard in the fury of the storm, holding you fast. O you of little faith, why do ye doubt? He who died to redeem just such souls as yours will not leave you comfortless.