All earthly _comforts_ vanish thus; So little hold of them have we, That we from them, or they from us, May in a moment ravished be. Yet we are neither just nor wise, If present mercies we despise; Or mind not how there may be made A thankful use of what we had. _Wither._ Beside the bed where parting life was laid, And sorrow, guilt, and pain by turns dismay’d, The reverend champion stood. At his control, Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul: _Comfort_ came down, the trembling wretch to raise, And his last, faltering accents whisper’d praise. _Goldsmith._ _Comfort_, ye ministers of grace, _Comfort_ my people, saith your God! Ye soon shall see his smiling face, His golden sceptre, not his rod; And own, when now the cloud’s removed, He only chasten’d whom he loved. Who sow in tears, in joy shall reap, The Lord shall _comfort_ all that mourn, Who now go on their way and weep, With joy they doubtless shall return, And bring their sheaves with vast increase, And have their fruit to holiness. _Wesley._ They sank amid the wilderness, The weary and forsaken; She gave the boy one faint caress, And prayed it might not waken. Far, far away the desert spread; Ah! love is fain to cherish The vainest hopes, but now she said, “Let me not see him perish.” Then spoke the Lord, and at his word Sprang forth a little fountain, Pure, cold as those whose crystal hoard Is in some pine-clad mountain. O blessed God! thus doth thy power, When, worn and broken-hearted, We sink beneath some evil hour, And deem all hope departed. Then doth the fountain of thy grace Rise up within the spirit, And we are strengthened for that race, Whose prize we shall inherit. When least we hope, our prayer is heard, The judgment is averted, And comes the _comfort_ of thy word, When most we seem deserted. _Miss Landon._ On wings of everlasting love The _Comforter_ is come; All terrors at his voice disperse, And endless pleasures bloom. _Doddridge._ COMMAND--COMMANDMENT. Moses went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had _commanded_ him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten _commandments_.--Exodus, xxxiv. 4, 28. Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great _commandment_. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two _commandments_ hang all the law and the prophets.--Matthew, xxii. 37, 38, 39, 40.