Consolation, Everlasting – Charles Spurgeon

A MAN goes to work to make money, and after toiling hard for it he gets it, and it is a consolation to him, but it is not an “everlasting consolation,” for he may spend or he may lose all his money; he may invest it in some company (limited or unlimited), and very soon find it vanish; or he may be compelled by death to leave it; it cannot be, at the best, more than a temporary consolation. A man toils hard for knowledge; he acquires it; he becomes eminent; his name is famous. This is a consolation to him for all his toil, but it cannot last long, for when he comes to feel the headache, or the heartache, his degrees and his fame cannot cheer him; or when his soul becomes a prey to despondency he may turn over many a learned tome before he will find a cure for melancholy. His consolation is but frail and fickle, it will only serve to cheer him at intermittent seasons; it is not “everlasting consolation.” But I venture to say that through the consolation which God gives to his people they are unsurpassed for their endurance. They can stand all tests—the shock of trial, the bursting out of passion, the lapse of years; nay, they can even stand the passage to eternity, for God has given to his people “everlasting consolation.