One of the most enviable gifts that we can possess when seeking to minister to those

in distress or sorrow is the ability to speak a word "in season" to him that is weary. There

are many weary hearts that cry our for comfort, yet how many are rebuffed and chilled

simply because the word of comfort has not been spoken "in season". The word in

season cannot be learned by rote, neither can it be acquired by any artificial means.

Words that reach the heart must come from the heart.

In Isa. 50: 4 we may learn the precious secret.

The gift of tongues surely never included a more precious gift than this. It is most

important for us to observe that the word rendered "learned" in the A.V. should be

"learner". Of all the people most unfit to speak to sorrowing ones is the "learned" one as

such. Isaiah uses the word so rendered, four times. "Disciples" (8: 16); "Taught of"

(54: 13); and "learned" (50: 4) (twice).

The learner, the one who has passed through the school of experience, is alone fitted

to minister comfort to the weary. How is the tongue of the learner obtained?

Here is the blessed secret. The tongue is influenced by the ear. This is so in the

physical world. There are many who are dumb solely because they are deaf. They do not

know that they can make an articulate sound, therefore they never speak. It is the same in

the spiritual world. Many a believer is dumb in testimony, in prayer, in proclamation,

because he is deaf. To have the tongue of the learner we need the wakened ear. The

wakened ear means more than merely "hearing", for "to hearken" in the Scriptures

includes obedience. So, in Isa. 50: 5, the opened ear is associated with meek subjection.