"YOU Have Collected All My Tears In YOUR Bottle."

CHRIST'S sympathy!
(Octavius Winslow, "The Tears of Christ") 

"JESUS wept!" John 11:35

The Creator of all worlds, the Author of all 

beings, the Upholder of the universe--

raining tears of human woe and 

sympathy upon a grave!

Oh, there lives not a being in the universe 

who can enter into our bereavements
with the sympathy, the support, and
the soothing of CHRIST!

They were tears of sympathy.
HIS heart was touched, deeply
touched, with sympathy for the sorrow
of others. HE wept because the mourning
sisters wept. HE mingled HIS tears with theirs.

This is true sympathy,
"weeping with those who weep,"
making their sorrow our own.

How really our LORD does this with HIS
people. So completely is HE our Surety--
that HE takes our sins and infirmities,
our trials and sorrows upon HIMSELF,
as if they were all and entirely HIS own.

Our sins were so completely laid upon HIM--
that not one remains charged to the account
of those who believe in JESUS.

And our present griefs are so entirely
absorbed in HIM that, softened by HIS love,

  soothed by HIS sympathy,

  supported by HIS grace--

the trial is welcome,

the affliction is sweet, and

the rod of a FATHER'S chastening,
buds and blossoms into delectable fruit.

Bereaved mourner, the sympathy
of CHRIST is yours!

The same SAVIOR who wept at the gave
of Bethany, now shares your grief.
Do not imagine that your sorrow is isolated,
or that your tears are forbidden or unseen.
You have a merciful and faithful HIGH PRIEST
who is touched with your present calamity.

There exists no sympathy . . .

  so real,

  so intelligent,

  so deep,

  so tender,

  so sanctifying--

as Christ's sympathy.

And if your heavenly FATHER has seen
it wise and good to remove from you
the spring of human pity--
it is but that HE may draw you closer
beneath the wing of JESUS' compassion,
presence and love.

O child of sorrow, will not this suffice,
that you possess CHRIST'S sympathy--
as immeasurable and exhaustless
as the ocean--
as exquisite and changeless
as HIS being!

Yield your heart to HIS rich compassion!

Will JESUS be regardless of what
I feel, and the sorrows under
which I groan? Oh no!

The sigh that bursts in secret from my
 heart is not secret to HIM; the tear that
is my food day and night and drops 
unperceived and unknown--
is known and remembered by HIM!

"YOU keep track of all my sorrows. 
YOU have collected all my tears in 
YOUR bottle. YOU have recorded 
each one in Your book." Psalm 56:8

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GraceGems has published John Newton's comforting two page article,
 "The School of Suffering!"