Christ's sympathy!

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(Octavius Winslow, "The Tears of Christ")

"Jesus wept!" John 11:35

The Creator of all worlds, the Author of all beings, the Upholder of the universe--raining tears of human woe and sympathy upon a grave!

Oh, there lives not a being in the universe who can enter into our bereavements with the sympathy, the support, and the soothing of Christ!

They were tears of sympathy. His heart was touched, deeply touched, with sympathy for the sorrow of others. He wept because the mourning sisters wept. He mingled His tears with theirs.

This is true sympathy, "weeping with those who weep," making their sorrow our own. How really our Lord does this with His people. So completely is He our Surety--that He takes our sins and infirmities, our trials and sorrows upon Himself, as if they were all and entirely His own. Our sins were so completely laid upon Him--that not one remains charged to the account of those who believe in Jesus.

And our present griefs are so entirely absorbed in Him, that,
softened by His love,
soothed by His sympathy,
supported by His grace--
the trial is welcome,
the affliction is sweet, and
the rod of a Father's chastening, buds and blossoms into delectable fruit.

Bereaved mourner, the sympathy of Christ is yours! The same Savior who wept at the gave of Bethany, now shares your grief. Do not imagine that your sorrow is isolated, or that your tears are forbidden or unseen. You have a merciful and faithful High Priest who is touched with your present calamity.

There exists no sympathy . . .
so real,
so intelligent,
so deep,
so tender,
so sanctifying--
as Christ's sympathy.

And if your heavenly Father has seen it wise and good to remove from you the spring of human pity--it is but that He may draw you closer beneath the wing of Jesus' compassion, presence and love.

O child of sorrow, will not this suffice, that you possess Christ's sympathy--as immeasurable and exhaustless as the ocean--as exquisite and changeless as His being! Yield your heart to His rich compassion!

Will Jesus be regardless of what I feel, and the sorrows under which I groan? Oh no! The sigh that bursts in secret from my heart is not secret to Him; the tear that is my food day and night and drops unperceived and unknown--is known and remembered by Him!

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book." Psalm 56:8

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