The Penn's Grove record., 1910-05-13
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. ALLAN D. CARLILE.
Theme: The Tears of Jesus.

los OdIlllO, p0oIOl VI LD0 IAlOOp AVE-
nue. Presbyterian Church, preached
Jesus" The text was from John
11:35. In the course of his sermon
DR.. Garlic said:
There never was a manlier man
than Jesus. When His masculine
traits are assembled, He towers
among men supreme for courage, will
power, ixity of purpose and persever-
ance in the face of obstacles. 1t is
true Jesus embodied human nature
and therefore we see in Him, as in
no other strong man, the distinctive
feminine traits Of sympathy, gentle
ness and love. But these did not pre-
dominate. Jesus is unique in that in
His character both the masculine and
feminine virtues blended harmon
iously. He is always gentle and al
ways strong. So that our text repre-
sents Him not only with the tender
| ness of the woman who weeps easily,
but also in the awful agony of the
| strong Man in tears. And when we
draw near to our Saviour's sorrow
and study the occasion for it, we get
an insight into His character not 9TH
| erwise disclosed. Three times He is
represented thus to us. Let us rev.
erently behold His sorrow and ask
Him why He weeps.
1. We come first to the occasion
| referred to In Luke 1874, where He
weeps over the city. Read the text
and catch the pathos of it. There are
two elements in Christ's sorrow here,
a lesser and a greater. He mourned
the destruction of that city, and for
| what that destruction typifed. There
are lessons for us in both. The first
indicates Jesus love Of place. 1t may
seem a little thing, but I like to recall
the fact that Jesus was and V 81 will
be associated with places on this
earth. He loved Jerusalem. Some
people scoff at the idea of "holy
places" The poet Montgomery asks,
s%cornfully:
whats holy ground? Has Earth a
clod
Its Maker meant should not be trod
By Man, the image Of his God, erect
and free?"
Perhaps not, but that is nothing
against holy places. 1t is natural to
love our birthplace; to hold In sacred
reverence the sanctuary where we
first found Christ and the field where
lies the dust of loved ones. And Jesus
loved the Holy City. He had peculiar
reasons for doing so. Had it not been
the trysting place of God and His
people for ages? Besides that, Jeru-
,alem was and is unique. Like Mel
ehisedek himself, its history has no
beginning, and it has always been and
always will be a holy city. It's first
king was a priest of the most high
God. It Is to this day the object of
the pilgrimages of the three greatest
| religions-Jewish, Mohammedan and
Christian-and in prophetic pictures
1t is destined to be again the most
sacred city of the world, when Israel
shall be brought back with joy and
singing and the glory of God once
more fill His sanctuary.
The wise men tell us that this
world will be destroyed; that 1t will
be blown to fragments by its internal
fires, or wrecked in collision with
some other world, or be frozen dead
by its own cooling. In some way or
other they are sure it will be de-
stroyed. But I doubt it. Jesus abides
unchanged, and in His regard for and
relation to this little world is just
what He was. When Peter and John
healed the lame man at the temple
gate they invoked the name of Jesus
of Nazareth" That is His name in
heaven. Destroy the world and we
will forget how He got His title. He
who wept over the city, how would
He weep over the world He came to
save! I do not believe anything in
the universe is going to be destroyed.
For it is written, 1.-THE creation itself
shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty
of the children of God" The uni
verse is waiting for the redemption
of our body" Matter, mind and soul
are to be redeemed, not destroyed.
But Jesus love of place is not suf-
! fcient to explain these tears. There
was agony infinitely deeper than that
in the thought Of what the city's
| downfall meant to the people for
whose salvation God had done so
much. Not that the work of God
would fail. He was able of the stones
to raise up children unto Abraham.
The door should be thrown wide open
and the Gentiles would come in. But
Gods love is not tickle, and the
thought of Israel, whom He loved and
still loves, children of the covenant,
heirs of the promises, doomed by
their own sou%l-blindness to be scat
tered among the nations, a people
without a home, like Abraham,
strangers and pilgrims" on the
earth, for centuries to be made to
suffer what they had made Him, their
greatest Prophet, suffer, who was
despised and rejected of men!"-this
was what agonized the Saviour. Here
His tears were for the ancient people
of God.
2. The second instance shows His
sympathy for men in the ordinary
sorrows of life. 1t happened at the
tomb of Lazarus, and it is from that
story that our text is taken. Under
stand, this is a case of pure sympathy.
He was not weeping for the death of
Lazarus. Such an Interpretation does
violence to the account as we have it.
Read the whole chapter. He knew
that Lazarus was to die. He knew
that 1t was that "the Son of Man
might be glorifed thereby" He
might have time to die. And He
huGW Iudb xI0 WOuAu ld1SC hin AAOAh
the dead. So far as regards Lazarus,
there must have been in Jesus heart
great and solemn joy as He stood be-
fore that tomb. But in the pause be-
fore He works His mightiest miracle
He feels the throb of anguish in the
sisters hearts. No faith in His i'm
mediate help; no hope there, and His
perception of the awful agony that
death brings to blind, unbelieving yet
loving humanity awakened a tempest
in the Saviour's soul.
Do you think this is not enough 10
account for the Strong Mans tears?
That there must have been the more
awful of the personal loss of a
loved one?" You are mistaken. Jesus
had no such sense of personal loss,
for He knew that in a moment more
Lazarus would stand among them
alive and we'll. And if you think
mere sympathy insufficient, it is be-
cause you have become dulled, Is
Jesus is not, to the awfulness of
earth's trials. Perhaps we all have to
some extent-with the exception of
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