The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-09-13

mingled His tears with theirs. This
friends of the family seeing this, said.
Behold how He loved him."
These tears reveal His grief on
account of mans guilt, blindness and
death. He fain would have shielded
them as a hen gathereth her brood
beneath her wings, and they would
not.
These tears reveal the divine esti-
mate of sin. 1t was not a thing to
be treated lightly. We joke about it,
laugh ut it, wink the eye at it, con
done, excuse, compromise, and
temporize with it; but not SO the
Lord. Only tears could express His
thoughts and feelings about it.
There is a tradition that Jesus
never smiled. That may be true or
false. We know He had a JOY CON
slant, deep, full and complete-"Who
for the joy set before him endured
the cross (Heb. 12:21) '"rhese things
have l spoken unto you that my JOY
might remain in you" John 10 III =;
THAT they might have my joy full
filed in themselves (John II :13) (;
ENTER thou into the joy of thy Lord
Matt. q :21).
These expressions do not present a
doleful, uninviting Christ. To many
He is un|attractiye, it is true. They
see His marred visage, n man of
sorrows, despised and rejected. View
ing Him from the outside, He looks no
mona ;n-;t;,y f1a, thn rroJnpro nla in
the wilderness with its rough, uncouth
and %uninviting exterior. There was
no beauty without it was all within.
But to those who know Him, what
rapturous and ravishing beauty He
contains. He is the Bright and Morn
ing Star, the Dayspring from on high,
the Sun of Righteousness, the one alto
gether lovely, and the chiefest of ten
thousand to the soul.
Even His tears are made a crystal
medium to radiate His glory. For He
was here to ave a lost world and in
His great redemptive work, He was
touched with a feeling of our infirmity
(Heb. 4:15). In order that He might
have compassion on the ignorant and
those that are out of the way, He was
himself comprised about with infirm-
tiles (Heb. 5:2), tempted in all points
as we are and afflicted in all our af-
fiictions. What q merciful and SYM
pathetic Savior
He wept over a worlds sorrow. This
he did at the grave of Lazarus. A
great bereavement had befallen Mary
and Martha In that death; the great
enemy of life had %tragically disorgan-
lied their home, leaving behind torn
and bleeding hearts, needing comfort
and sympathy. This Jesus gave not
with His tears only but His sublime
assurances of the resurrection.
He wept over Il worlds guilt. 1t
was In Gethsemane where the guilt
of sin in all its awfulness, its dread,
its terror, cam upon Him overwhelm-
ingly. In becoming the worlds sin
bearer, He was to suffer the hiding
of Gods face, the awful abandonment
of the cross. Tlns sin has upon it,
from the divine side, the tears and
sweat of Gethsemane-the blood and
agony of Calvary.
He wept over a worlds blindness.
You can hear a sob in these words "Oh
Jerusalem, Jerusalem How often
would | have gathered thy children to.
gether, as a hen doth gather her brood
under her wings, and ye would not"
eye will not come 10 me that ye might
have life" 1t was Israel's rejection,
blindness, false security, blasted hopes,
fearful %retribution and centuries of
misery, which drew his tears as he be.
held the Inflated city.
During one of those bloody Paris
communes, n godly priest was exc.
cuted. Afterwards, in searching his
cell for valuables, attention was drawn
to the window, which was i'm the form
of q cross, by some writing on the
casing surrounding it. Upon examl-
nation, the word height" was found
on the lintle, depth" on the sill be
meath, length and breadth" on the
sides. SO the tears of the Master pre-.
sent to us the length and depth, the
height and breadth Of the love of God.