The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-10-30
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. A. B.. SIMPSON.
Subject: The Gospel of Tears.

New York City.-The famous head
Of the Christian Alliance, the Rev. A.
B.. Simpson, on Sunday preached a
notable sermon, having for its subject
The Gospel of Tears" The texts
we're:
Jesus wept.-John 1885.
And when He was ONE near He
beheld the city, and wept over it.
Luke 1874.
Who in the days of His flesh, when
He had offered up prayers and sup
plications with strong crying and
tears unto Him that was able to save
Him from death, and was heard in
that He feared.-Heb. ST.
Who has not wept? Weeping we
begin life as helpless babes and, amid
the tears of mourning friends, we
pass out to the grave. Tears are the
badges of sorrow. How car they be
the expression of the Gospel, the glad
tidings of great JOY and divine love?
And yet redemption has trans
formed the curse into a blessing and
made a rainbow of III tears.
"Jesus wept." This little phrase,
the shortest in the Bible, has more in
it than all the books that man has
written. A single drop of ink could
write it, but all the world could not
contain it's depths of love.
1t tells me that my Redeemer is
human. Tears are human and the
tears of Jesus proclaim Him my
Brother an1 my Friend. He is the
r,oot I,o~Asn Had &c 1,r fol1an roon
One has come to US who is "bone OF
our bone" and flesh of our flesh" and
has the right to represent us; who is
able to right our wrongs and recover
our lost heritage of happiness and
blessing.
When God determined to save this
fallen world, He did not send some
mighty angel. He did not come in
His own awful deity; but He stopped
US in a gentle human form of which
we should not be afraid. How the
Roman Catholic clings to the tender
sympathy of the virgin mother, but
we do not need even woman's tender
ness to introduce us to the Fathers
heart; for Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
has a heart both of woman and of
man. He has been an infant child
like us. He has ~traversed every stage
of the pilgrimage Of man from the
cradle to the grave. He has been
everywhere that we have been. He
has felt everything that we can feel.
He knows our nature. He bears our
name. He wears our humanity. And
for evermore the Head of this uni
verse, the King of Kings, the Lord
of angels shall be a Man like us, our
Friend that sticketh closer than a
brother"
Oh, what a gospel of comfort we
find in the humanity of Christ. You
can come to Him tonight as you
would to the gentlest friend, the most
intelligent father, the noblest man
you ever knew; and though we have
sinned and gone far astray, "He is
not ashamed to call us brethren"
They tell us that He is able to SYM
pathize with our sorrows. He wept
those tears for others. He saw
two breaking hearts before Him. He
felt their agony! He groaned in spirit
and was troubled and at last He
broke down altogether and burst into
a flood of tears. How we thank Him
for those tears.
This salvation is not all for the
pearly gates, the streets Of gold and
the glorious Heaven that is coming
bye and bye. We need a lot Of it
down here in this broken-hearted
world amid u poverty and pain, our
sickness and death, our broken friend
ships, our wrecked homes, our wrongs
and sorrows and, thank God, He has
it for u.s.. He has experienced it and
He has not forgotten it and still in
His heavenly home we are told He
is able to be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities."
He was a child and has felt every
childish sorrow. He had the hard
struggle to support His mother at
Nazareth and He knows all about
hard work and hard times. He was
despised and scorned and He under
stands the n of wrong and sting
of insult. He was deceived, betrayed
and murdered and there is no wrong
or insult can come to US that He has
not borne and is still ready to bear
for US. Yes, He has felt the awful
weight of sin, for there was an hour
when He sank under His Fathers
wrath in punishment for the sins of
men. He knows the cloud of spir-
itual darkness. He knows the weak
ness and agony of death and He is
with us in it all. Blessed Friend,
how We thank God for Christ and
what a gospel of love and sympathy
and help speaks to US through the
tears of Bethany.
The tears of Jesus tell us that He
understands our danger, our destiny
and our estate. He shed those tears
over the grave Of Lazarus. They
meant much more than a sense of be-
reavement. He was not weeping be-
cause He had lost Lazarus. He was
not weeping because the sisters at
Bethany had lost their brother. He
knew that Lazarus was coming forth
again in a little while and that the
sorrow would be forgotten in the glad
reunion. Oh, no, He saw deeper than
that. He saw in the grave of Lazarus