The tears of Jesus of Nazareth

Preface

Whatever originality, strictly speaking, this book possesses consists in the arrangement of its subjects, the grouping of its thoughts, the fullness of its treatment, the fitness of its topics to the spiritual wants of humanity, and the directness of its appeals to the conscience and the heart. Jesus of Nazareth is represented in His double character as a Sympathizer with His disciples and a Compassionate Mourner over those who will not hearken to His voice. His weeping beside the grave of Lazarus is taken as a proof and type of the one feeling ; His weeping over Jerusalem as a proof and type of the other. The Author believes that the reflections which have arisen in his own mind while considering these two prominent incidents

IV PREFACE.

in the Saviours life, and to which he has given expression in the following pages, may, perhaps, comfort many who are followers of the Redeemer, and lead some who do not now love Him to feel the compassion of His nature and to choose Him as their eternal Friend. Cheered by this hope he sends forth these thoughts into the world.

New Orleans, October, 1859.

PART FIRST. %\t %tu% at fajaras' into*

PAGE

The Scene at the Grave— Causes of the Saviour's Grief— Others mentioned in the Scriptures as Weeping — Tears of Jesus Nobler than Theirs — Our Redeemer not a Proud Philosopher, but a Man sympathizing with Men — The Saviour's Smiles — The Redeemer no Friend of Asceticism — Yalue of the Record, " Jesus "Wept" — Tears not Unbecoming Man's Dignity, — as Evincing a Tender and Sympathetic Nature— True Tears not Tears of Sentimentalism — The Man that will not Weep a Man unlike Christ — The Mourner may Weep — The Weeper after Jesus shall find Him a Present Saviour. 13

2. — & \z Sfgmpaijjjetic 8C * a r s of Christ,

Sweetness of the Words, "Jesus Wept" — The Son of God in Tears — Not Want made the Saviour Weep ; and the Lesson — His Tears not the Tears of Ungratified Ambition ; and the Lesson — Man's Tears often Tears of Sin — The Weeping of Jesus prompted by Sympathy — These Tears prove the Redeemer Human no less than Divine — This Thought the Christian's Delight — The Saviour Sympathetic even in Heaven — His Sympathy the Result of His Sufferings as a Man — His Sympathy Perfect and Everlasting — The Redeemer we need,— God enthroned in the form of Glorified Humanity. 39

VI CONTENTS.

PAGE

Christ fitted by Experience to be a Sympathizer — Sympathy of Jesus ever Ready — Sympathy of Jesus All-powerful — A Blessed Eecord, " Jesus Wept" — Jesus a Sympathizer in our Poverty — Jesus a Sympathizer amid the Frowns of the World — Jesus a Sympathizer in our Temptations — Jesus a Sympathizer when we feel secret Anguish of Heart — Jesus a Sympathizer in our Mourning over the Wayward—Jesus a Sympathizer when Death bereaves us of Eelatives or Friends — Jesus a Sympathizer in all our Troubles — This Sympathetic Saviour Faithful amid our Unfaithfulness, and Faithful Forever — The Backslider and the Wavering Christian should Remember His Tears — The Impenitent should Weep in Regret, and Appeal to the Redeemer's Compassion. 59

PART SECOISTX

Jerusalem from Mount Olivet on the Morning of the Triumphal Procession — The Saviour's Pause, and His Lamentation over the Doomed City — Pathetic Grandeur of the Scene — Jesus Wept over Jerusalem on account of her abused Privileges and her Consequent Punishment — The People Foredoomed, yet might have been Blest — Picture of Jerusalem's Happiness and Dignity, had Jesus been received as the Messiah — The Opposite and True Picture — Solemn Tenderness of the Saviour's Plaint — Sorrow of the Redeemer over Jerusalem's Downfall and the Nation's Fate — Their Spiritual Perdition the chief Cause of His Lamentation — The Example of Jesus teaches us to Weep over those of our Neighborhood who obey not God and Christ — Our Duty to Save them by our Tears coupled with Personal Efforts in their Behalf. 83

CONTENTS. Vll

2. — & sacking* of ffilj r i s t ' * Sorrnfaiitg Ktars,

PAGE

The Example of Jesus a Teaching Instrumentality — His Weeping over Jerusalem an Eminent Lesson — The Redeemer's Self-forgetfulness in all His Acts — This Trait beautifully Shown by His Lamentation on Olivet — His Own G-riefs Forgotten in Jerusalem's coming "Woes — Tears of the Saviour Indicative of His Intense Benevolence — His Love even to His Enemies and Murderers — Lesson of Kindness and Gentle Dealing Taught by His Example — This Benevolence not Confined, but World-wide — Our Benevolence should be as Free and as Large — Tears of Jesus Manifest His Deep Solicitude for Man's Salvation — In this Anxiety we should Share — Why Christians Weep over the Impenitent 109

3. — % Ij e S?u b %n u x * b ^umzvttutian abzx J§ % n n t x s .

The Weeping of Jesus on Olivet a Proof of the Sincerity of His Wish to save the G-uilty from Ruin — The People over whom He Wept He had Labored for in Love ; and hence His Tears — Consistency of this Grief with the Fact (well known to Jesus) that the Jewish Nation was devoted to Destruction — Repentance would have Saved the People; but, not Repenting, they were Lost by their Own Fault — Invalidity of the Sinner's Excuse that his Fate is Predetermined by God — The Impenitent Man Self-destroyed — God's Offer of Salvation to all a Sincere Offer — Every Man Invited in Yarious Ways to Look in Penitence and Faith to Christ for Salvation — Tears of Jesus still Appealing to the Sinner — The Weeping of the Redeemer Manifests the Dreadrulness of the Doom of those who Reject His Love — These Tears Forebode the Sinner's Eternal Destruction — Now is the Time to Seek the Saviour ; now, while God has not Hidden the Things that pertain to Man's Peace. . . .131

Vlll CONTENTS

4. — ®|u Compass ifl it ate Senrg of Christ.

PAGE

The Sinner's Unjust Suspicions of the Saviour — Christ's Conduct Proves His Sincerity — The Eedemption He Wrought Evidence of His Earnest Compassion — The Sufferings He Underwent for Men Guilty and Condemned — No Stronger Proof of His Sincerity Possible — The Lo^e Displayed in this Work of Redemption — The Saviour Warning by His Tears respecting the Things of Man's Peace — Man Disbelieving and Resisting the Admonition — Danger of Salvation's being Hidden from the Sinner's Eyes — The Day of Mercy Now, but Soon the Night of Despair — The Redeemer would Save, and still Invites by His Spirit — Impenitent Man yet Doubting — Offer of Mercy Made to the Most G-uiity — The Offer Made to all Classes — The Clemency of the Redeemer still in Operation — Last Call to Attend to the Things Pertaining to Peace 14 *1

%\t fears at Rants' 0x0.

"Jesus wept."— John xi. 35.

Mary, for a moment, ere she looked

Upon the Saviour, staved her faltering feet,

And straightened her veiled form, and tighter drew

Her clasp upon the folds across her breast ;

Then, with a vain strife to control her tears,

She staggered to their midst, and at His feet

Fell prostrate, saying, " Lord, badst Thou been here,

My brother had not died I" — The Saviour groaned ^

In spirit, and stooped tenderly, and raised

The mourner from the ground, and, in a voice

Broke in its utterance like her own, He said, " Where have ye laid him ?" — Then the Jews who came,

Following Mary, answered through their tears, "Lord, come and see !" — But, lo ! the mighty heart

That in Gethsemane shed drops of blood,

Taking for us the cup that might not pass —

The heart whose breaking chord upon the cross

Made the earth tremble, and the sun afraid

To look upon His agony — the heart

Of a lost world's Redeemer — overflowed,

Touched by a mourner's sorrow ! " Jesus wept."

1ST. P. Willis.

The Scene at the Grave — Causes of the Saviour's Grief — Others Mentioned in the Scriptures as Weeping! — Tears of Jesus Nobler than Theirs— Our Redeemer, not a Proud Philosopher, but a Man Sympathizing with Men— The Saviour's Smiles— The Redeemer no Friend of Asceticism — Value of the Record, " Jesus Wept" — Tears not Unbecoming Man's Dignity, — as Evincing a Tender and Sympathetic Nature — True Tears not Tears of Sentimentalism — The Man that will not Weep a Man unlike Christ — The Mourner may Weep — The Weeper after Jesus shall find Him a Present Saviour.

In the village of Bethany, a short distance from Jerusalem, there lived a family that was composed of a brother and two sisters. The Saviour had spent many an hour of friendship beneath their roof ; for, as we are told, " Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." While He was absent in Persea, " beyond Jordan," however, and not long before His final visit to Jerusalem, wan Disease appeared in the midst of this cherished circle, and threatened to remove its ornament and hope. Lazarus, having sickened, lay at the point of death. The anxious sisters despatched a messenger to the Friend of their brother, imploring Him to hasten to their help. But no help came. So far from responding promptly to their call of distress, the Redeemer " abode two days still in the same place where He was" ; and when at length He did commence to return, He knew, and told His disciples, that Lazarus was sleeping the sleep of death. He deferred relief till relief seemed quite impossible, — that He might lay bare to the bereaved family and to the world the depth of His affection, and show forth unto all the power and the glory of the Son of God.

When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days, and was now lying in the grave. Martha and Mary, hearing that their Friend had come at last, went out, one after the other, to meet Him, and to inform Him that the prop of their house was broken. The sorrow of the one, though deep and bitter, was partially kept in check ; but that of the other displayed itself in outbreaking sobs and a torrent of tears. Both, however, looked for comfort from the Teacher whom they had often entertained ; and both, it would seem, had a trembling anticipation that even yet, late as He had arrived, He would do something to relieve their distress, and restore them to their former joy. Calm and self-possessed was Martha as she told Jesus of her regret at his untimely absence ; but Mary, hurried away by the violence of her grief, could not refrain from throwing herself at His feet, and sobbing aloud, as she said to Him, in the same words which her sister had used, u Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died !"

Those who stood around and witnessed this scene of sorrow, were deeply moved by the grief of the sisters, and could not but join in bewailing their loss. And the heart of the Saviour was also touched. As He looked upon the saddened brow and drooping head of Martha, and upon the form of Mary quivering in anguish before Him, and upon the moistened cheeks of them that mourned in company with the bereaved, the chords of sympathy were struck within His soul, and His eye overflowed with tears. Then there crept a hallowed awe over the feelings of that sorrowing assemblage ; and, for the moment, the beating of their hearts was stilled. A solemn silence gathered around them all, for " Jesus wept." The emotions which agitated Him amid that scene of anxious though tfulness, could not be quelled. His bosom heaved sigh after sigh ; and the drops of tender compassion rolled down His face in a copious stream.

The memory of Lazarus, and the manifested sorrow of his sisters and friends, wrought upon the affectionate nature of the Saviour, as He stood beside the burial-place of the departed, and caused

Him to shed the tears of sympathizing grief. The manly form which He had so often seen in blooming health, was now lying before Him cold and dead ; the hand which He had so often clasped in love, was nerveless and stiff ; the eye which had so often gazed with rapture into His, was closed and dark ; the tongue which had so often welcomed Him as an honored guest, was motionless and dumb. Lazarus was no more ; and his departure had brought the shadow of loneliness upon that home which, while he lived, his presence had cheered and comforted with its gladsome light. All this was before the mind of the Redeemer, while His eye and His ear were filled with the sight and the sound of a surrounding anguish that vented itself in groans, and sobs, and tears. No wonder is it, therefore, that He let the drops of sorrow fall.

It may be, too, that the Saviour's thoughts traveled forward to the time, now so near, when He Himself should be stretched, a lacerated corpse, in the tomb ; and when, bereft of their stay and comfort, His mother, His brethren, and His disciples should stand and weep beside the place in which He was to lie in the breathlessness and the rigidity of death. The scene which was before Him, and the scene which was pictured forth by His keen foresight into the future, were very sad to look upon, and so " He groaned in spirit, and was troubled" even to the depths of His soul. The fountain of His sympathy was unsealed, and " Jesus wept."

Nor need we think that these precious teardrops shed at Lazarus' grave were poured forth only for them who were lamenting beside his tomb. Jesus perceived not only the coining sufferings of those who were then His disciples, but the sufferings that were to afflict His followers, in one shape or another, during every age ; and He knew that on such occasions they would need His sympathizing aid. He saw that sorrow would try them at times and in places where He could not appear to them in person, and console their aching hearts. Often should they weep ; but He could not be visibly present to wipe their tears away. Often should they sigh ; but He could not come and let them visibly lean their fainting heads upon His breast. Foreseeing all this, He was unable to keep back the tears of grief which sprung forth from His eyes and trickled down His cheeks.

There was a thought enwrapped in these reflections, however, which soothed their sting, and turned the tears that Jesus shed into tears of sorrowing joy. He knew that He should be ever present with those who love Him in the person of that other heavenly Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and thus be able to relieve their every woe ; and He knew that, taught by the Spirit, His disciples would call to mind the holy scene at Lazarus' grave, and make the dew-drops of His sympathetic mourning a balm for all their wounds. His grief, therefore, bitter as it was, was not unmixed with pleasure ; for it must have made Him glad to remember that myriads of disconsolate believers would hereafter take comfort from the record of His tears, and that they would be made strong under the assurance that, though removed to Heaven, He still ministers by His Spirit to the wants of the bereaved, and imparts to them the fullest consolation and peace.

The Scriptures tell us of many who have wept, — some from disappointment, some from sorrow, some from sympathy, some from repentance, some from joy. Nowhere, however, do they tell us of tears so generous, so pure, so soul-melting, as those of the Saviour when He mourned at the grave of His friend. Hagar wept because she thought herself about to be deprived of her son ; Esau wept because he, the first-born, had been supplanted by his younger brother ; Hannah wept because her misfortune was cast up to her by her rival as a fault. Job in his wretchedness "poured out tears unto God/' until his face was " foul with weeping/' and on his eyelids was "the shadow of death"; Abraham wept in sorrow over his departed wife j King Hezekiah wept when he was informed that he was soon to die ; the Prophet Elisha wept at the thought of the evil which the Syrian Hazael was to bring upon the land of the Hebrews. Samson's wife shed tears of deceit before her husband ; the daughters-in-law of Naomi shed oyer her tears of regretful affection, when she was about to leave them and return to her native home. Jacob wept when he first saw Rachel ; and he wept, in unison with Esau, when he fell on that outraged brother's neck after their long separation ; and he wept when he heard that Joseph, his darling son, ^as dead. This same Joseph could not help weeping aloud when he made himself known in Egypt to his brethren ; and Jonathan and David, when they threw themselves into each other's arms, embraced amid a flood of tears. The eyes of Jeremiah became fountains of water as he gazed in bitterness upon the ruins of Jerusalem ; the captives of

Babylon "wept" with grief when they " remembered Zion" ; and they who had seen the first temple before it was destroyed, "wept with a loud voice/' in a transport of joy, when they beheld the foundations of the second temple laid.

And as it was in the times of the Old Testament dispensation, so was it in the days when the New had just begun its course. Peter shed tears of penitence on meeting the mournful glance of the Lord, whom he had thrice denied. The " daughters of Jerusalem" gave way to tears of doleful lamentation, when they saw Jesus walking beneath His cross to the place of crucifixion ; and the bereaved disciples threw wide the flood-gates of their sorrow while their Master was lying pale and breathless in the tomb. The widows whom Dorcas had relieved hung over her dead body with outbursts of anguish, and eyes that dripped with dew. Paul preached the Gospel for three long years in Ephesus with a wet cheek and an anxious heart ; and the elders of Ephesus, when they parted with him at Miletus, "fell upon his neck, and wept." Finally, the Apostle John "wept much" in his apocalyptic vision, because there was " no man" found "in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth," who was "worthy to open and to read the book" which was " sealed with seven seals."

Long as this record of weepers is, it might be made longer ; but, after all of them should be brought forward, there would be mentioned not one whose tears were so entirely unselfish as those that Jesus shed at the grave of His departed friend. He wept for the woes of others, and not at all for His own ; though even then the shadow of the cross was flinging itself athwart His path. His noble heart beat not in solicitude for His own fate, but only with the warmest throbs of sympathy divine. And most beauteous indeed was the expression of fellow-feeling with man's infirmities then given by the pure and spotless Lamb of God. It came at the time, and it will ever come, with a rare power from Him who is the perfection of all that is excellent in humanity ; for it is a sentiment as finely expressed as true, that

" No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears, No gem that, sparkling, hangs from Beauty's ears, — Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn f Nor rising sun, that gilds the vernal morn, — Shine with such lustre as the tear that breaks For others' woe down Virtue's lovely cheeks."

Had we never heard of the Saviour, and were a

99, stranger to tell us that, many years ago, a Being of His elevated character came into the world to redeem it from the curse of sin by the offering of Himself as an atonement for its guilt, and by the leading of a life of unstained perfection, we should scarcely expect the narrator to describe to us a person who spent His days iq familiar intercourse with all classes and conditions of men. We should hardly expect to hear that a Being so illustrious and dignified mingled freely with every rank in society ; and that He conversed with all kinds of people, taught them, and entered cordially into their feelings of hope, and sorrow, and joy. Now, whether we should look for it or not, this was precisely what the Saviour did. Coming, as the Son of God, to perform a work too mighty for the highest archangel, and possessed of a glory before which the glory of the seraphim grows pale, He yet exhibited no outward badge of His heavenly origin; He burst not in regal pomp upon the world ; and He erected not a throne of earthly splendor before which men were to bow and worship in astounded reverence and wondering awe. Nothing of the kind did He who was by nature and by right the " King of kings and Lord of lords." He appeared as a man of lowliness, — -a man sprung from a family in moderate circumstances, and brought up to humble labor from His youth. And when He went forth upon His more public ministry, He showed Himself the same in character and in acts, — associating, not with the influential and the great, but with those who knew but little of monarchs, and courts, and men of noble birth.

Such was the condition Jesus chose to assume ; and in this condition it was that He passed a life that was closed by the bringing in of man's redemption. You do not read of His withdrawing Himself, like some haughty philosopher, from society, and compelling those who desired His company to seek Him in some dignified retreat ; but you read of His mingling freely with all classes everywhere, and teaching the people, as occasion offered, the lessons of happiness and truth. He met them as a man among men, a friend among friends ; and He entered with sympathy into their wants, their hopes, their gladness, and their griefs. From none did He stand aloof; but admitted the despised, the forsaken, the outcast, to His presence, and gave them looks of kindness and words of cheer. To all that sought Him He paid attention, — extending to each the hand of help, and laying open to each a sympathizing heart.

Jesus felt for humanity in every variety of it, and in every condition. Gentle was He, and kind, and compassionate, to all ; for, wherever He found a fellow-being, there He found an object of regard, and treated him as a brother beloved. He sympathized with them that were in sorrow, and them that were in joy ; but chiefly did He feel for those who were tortured by the ranklings of grief. Hear Him how He says to the weary in soul, " Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest !" Mark how He comforts the despondency of His disciples ; how patiently He instructs their ignorance ; how readily He forgives their waywardness ; and how He pities them, folds them in His arms, and pillows their head upon His bosom. Observe Him healing the sick, imparting sight to the blind, curing the deaf, giving feet to the lame, feeding the hungry, comforting them that were in sorrow, and showing to men in all their wants and woes that He is their earnest Friend. Note His kindness to the sinful woman who bathed His feet with her tears ; and listen to the sweet tones of His forgiving voice, saying to the wife who had proved faithless to her marriage vow, " Neither do I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more." Hear Him speak to the nobleman of Capernaum who had left his son lying at the point of death, " Go thy way, thy son liveth." See Him touch the bier of the youth who was his widowed mother's support ; and mark how at the word of Jesus' power the dead man started up to life. Look at Him as He stood by the grave of Lazarus, and wept ; and look at Him as He gazed down from Olivet, and shed the tears of grief over a city which, though He loved it tenderly, Himself had doomed to meet with a speedy destruction from the hands of its foes.

Tradition says that the Saviour was never known to smile ; but the tradition is late in its origin, and nothing worth. There can be no doubt that the happiness of others waked up the sense of pleasure in Jesus' soul ; and this pleasure could not well do otherwise than show itself upon His countenance in a cheerful, even if it were a fleeting, gleam of joy. The face of the Saviour, we may be sure, was not always overclouded with sadness, though the Gospel Histories have nowhere positively recorded that He was ever seen to smile. Rays of sunshine must have played around His head ; but these, no doubt, were fitful and few. How could it be otherwise, when there was a burden ever pressing on His heart which forced Him to dwell upon coming scenes of mournfulness and distress? Gethsemane, and Golgotha, and the garden of the tomb, kept looming up before Him ; and it would have been strange indeed had not the cloud of anxiety which hung over His soul often cast its dark shadow upon His brow. Knowing what anguish awaited Him, He pondered on the thought until it wrote itself upon His face, and even infused a tinge of melancholy into His voice. His, then, must ever have been a calm and dignified joy ; and we may well imagine that His very smiles partook of the complexion of His mind. They were sadly gladsome smiles ; and, when seen to play for a moment around His mouth, they revealed an earnest absorption of soul that would harmonize with cheerfulness, but not with ill-timed merriment and riotous delight.

Jesus did not refuse the sanction of His presence at the festivities of the marriage in Cana of Galilee ; and hence we may consider it proven that He frowned not upon any recreation which, while it was timely, was also suitable to the dignified nature and noble destiny of man. Approving thus of innocent and worthy enjoyment, He was often gratified, we may presume, in looking on the happiness of His friends ; and, therefore, we may take it for granted that He gave them, when it was proper, an encouraging smile. That He ever went beyond a smile, — that He indulged in that laughter which in mere man has its time and its place, — we can not easily believe ; for laughter seems ill suited to a character so grand and solemn as His and a nature so exquisitely sensitive and so divinely serene. His thoughts were too pensive to harmonize with such an expression of gayety ; and His work was too dignified to admit of His giving way to such an exhibition of careless mirth. We are willing to think, then, that the Redeemer never laughed, even amid the most cheerful scenes of His life ; but we do not, we can not, think that He never smiled. Smile He did, we firmly believe ; and to him that saw it His smile must have been as sunshine to the soul.

No record was needed to tell us that the Saviour smiled ; and consequently it has not been told. We do need a record, however, to inform us that " Jesus wept"; for in this way we are taught that He who promises to heal our infirmities has a fellow-feeling with us in our sufferings, can enter into our griefs when we mourn, can appreciate our anxieties, and, whatever be our trouble, can bid His tears to flow with ours. We want to know that the Saviour who is offered to us can understand and sympathize with the anguish of an aching heart ; we want to know whether He will feel for us in our trials, and be ready to administer the cordial of relief. All this the record lets us know when it tells us in its sweet simplicity that " Jesus wept."

There are those who think that tears are unbecoming the dignity of man, and would allow to woman alone the privilege of weeping when the heart is sad. Time was, perhaps, when some of us so thought, and when we would resolutely check the rising tear and keep it locked up within the font of grief. But we have learned, I hope, that we were wrong ; and we now feel that the eye which is never dimmed by a tear is not more unnatural and repulsive than the face which is never lighted with a smile. To weep is human. Jesus wept ; and what He did any man may do. If He disdained not to exhibit this proof of tender-heartedness, and to open wide before His friends the fountain of His sorrow, none of us, however stern, need be ashamed to let the dew-drops of sympathizing affection fall. " There is a sacredness in tears." Take them away, and where can you find the suitable expression for grief, for regret, for love ? Take them away, and man would be no longer man. Oh, then, think not harshly of those that weep ; for weeping is too eloquent and too solemn a thing to be mocked or despised.