The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1910-07-21

| loVed one! You are mistaken. Jesus
had no such sense Of personal loss,
Tor He knew that ir q moment more
Lazarus would stand among them
mere sympathy insufficient, It is be-
cause you have become dulled, as
Jesus is not. to the awfulness of
earth's trials. Perhaps we all have to
some extent-with the exception of
death. We have never gotten used
to death. GOD has planted deep in
our hearts a hatred Of death as the
unnatural thing, the unnecessary
thing. the thing that ought not to
be! 1t is His promise and prophecy
| that 1t shall not always be. But we
I the ordinary trials of life. But
| heaven has not! Earth's sorrows are
| worse In heavens view than in our
| own. Do not think that Jesus mini
| m1zes them, when even the angel.
when speaking of His suffering ones
to John, said, These are they thai
have come out Of great tribulation."
.. The third instance is His agony
In the Garden. And this, too, is SYM
pathy. Not now for the Jewish peo-
pie. nor for the world at large in life's
ordinary troubles, but for His own
disciples, whose awful grief and dis
! appointment He foresees.
know that some think that His
agony In the Garden was due to His
dread of physical suffering. But 1
do not believe 1t. That would con-
tradict all have said about the Man
liest OF Men. I have a nobler concer-
tion Of Jesus. Other men havo faced
| death in the most excruciating forms
without a murmur. His followers
without number have died for Him
rejoicing. They have been beheaded,
crucifed head downward, burned at
the stake, and have bathed their
hands in the fire and sung praises to
God while breath lasted. Jesus was
| no coward. And the disciple Is not
| greater than His Lord"
But others think that we must add
| to this the "loss of the conscious
fellowship of the Father. which was
hell for Jesus" But He evidently
did not anticipate this That IL a cry
of surprise He utters on the cross
when He says, my God! My God!
Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Bad
enough for His disciples to forsake
Him, and reason enough for 1t, but
Thou? why hast Thou forsaken
Me?"
And there are still others who say
1t was the horror of being made an
Offering for SIM" But He knew this
all along. He faced this from the
beginning of His ministry. And He
| said once that He was "straitcncd un-
til it be ACCOMPLISHED"
l see in Christ's agony in the Gar
demand it Is beautiful as a revela-
tion of His characteristic sympathy
for His disciples in the awful agony
His death was to occasion them. You,
too, may see it, if you will read atten-
lively the story in Johns Gospel be-
ginning with the thirteenth chapter.
Note how He labors to make them
comprehend what must happen to
Him, and how utterly He fails.
| Though He tells them over and over
again that He must leave them, that
| He will be crucified, and that it is alb
! solutcly necessary that He should
be, they cannot entertain the thought.
So far from 1t that they insist on be-
lieving that He is still speaking to
them in parallels. But He is so ex-
ceedingly eager to forewarn them
and thus fortify them for their trial
that He utters that remarkable prayer
OF John II in their hearing. Surely
they Will believe and understand
when they hear Him speaking the
same things to God and praying for
them that the Father might keep
them in His absence? But 1t IS in
vain. So foreign to their preconcep-
tions is 1t that His words make no
| impression upon them. And so they
must hear the awful downfall of all
| their hopes and the loss of all their
faith in Him. Dull pupils were the
apostles until after Pentecost.
1t was in this spirit that Christ en-
| tered Gethsemane. Why did He take
aside the brightest three of His apos-
ties and why did He bid them watch
| Him as He went and prayed, unless it
were to show them the eager earnest
| ness OF His own heart for them? They
could not think that a parable. But
they were too heevy-eyed to watch.
so l believe that even the agony in
the Garden was vicarious. Jesus who
refused to exercise His power for
Himself at the beginning did not
weep for Himcelf at the end of His
ministry.
Now what could show us the heart
side OF the Saviour so clearly as His
tears? We need no feminine inter-
mediary, for Christ has the tender
ness OF woman. He knows your
sorrow. He appreciates it's weight to
the full. He considers 1t more awful
than You do. How gloriously will He
reward them that endure to the end
He feels for all mankind. His own
ministry was largely to the desolate,
and He waits for you. His disciples,
to hear His message OF hope and love
and comfort to every one.
He has not forgotten nor cast off
His ancient people. They, too, in
Gods good time, shall come to know
His love for them. And in that day
the city that crumbled beneath the
SaViour's tears shall be glorified With
His smile.