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February 10, 1909. THE PRESBYTER]
THE COMPASSIONATE CHRIST.
By Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.
There is 110 place in which human sorrows are felt
as they are felt in the heart of Jesus. No one knows
human weakness as he knows it, or pities as he can
uitv. Everv sufferincr tlio Kn,i?f i..*~
j u. ...v uv?uj is miuwii iu our sympathizing
Lord, and every grief that makes the heart
ache. Hitman pity is often worn out from overuse. It
impatiently mutters, "Is that poor creature here again?
I have helped him a dozen times already." Or it says,
"That miserable fellow has taken to drink again, has
he? I am done trying to save him. He makes himself
a brute; let him die like the brutes!" Human pity
often gives way just when it should stand the heaviest
strain.
Compassion dwells in the heart of Christ, as inexhaustible
as the sunlight. Our tears hang heavier on
that heart than the planets which his divine hand
holds in their orbits; our sighs are more audible to his
car than the blasts of wintry winds are to us. When
we pray aright, we are reaehinrr nn nnrt tot-in? ?
_ t> "f ??'U UI1
that compassion. The penitent publican was laying
hold of it when he cried out of that broken heart, "Be
merciful to me, a sinner!" It is his sublime pity that
listens to our prayers and hears our cries and grants
us what we want. Therefore let us come boldly to the
throne of grace and make our weakness, our guiltiness,
and our griefs to be their own pleas to him who is
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. One of
the most characteristic stories of Abraham Lincoln is
that a poor soldier's wife came to the White House,
with her infant in her arms, and asked admission to see
the President. She came to beg him to grant a pardon
tO her luisbnnrl *.r oo - ~:,:i
U| nl.u ? u.i uuuct a miuiaiy sentence.
"Be sure and take the baby up with you," said the
Irish porter at the White House door. At length the
woman descended the stairway, weeping for joy; and
the Irishman exclaimed, "Ah, mum, it was the baby
that did it!"
So doth our weakness appeal to the compassionate
heart of our Redeemer. There is no more exquisite
description of him than in this touch: "He shall feed
his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs in
his arms and carry them in his bosom; he shall gently
lead those that are with young." Such is our blessed
Master's tender mercy to the weak. It is tender because
it never breaks the bruised reed or quenches the
feeblest spark. This world of ours contains vastly more
Iweak things than strong things. Here and there towers
a mountain pine or stalwart oak; but the frail reeds and
rushes are innumerable. Even in the Bible gallery
of characters how few are strong; yea, none but had
some weakness. Abraham's tongue is once twisted to
a falsehood; the temper of Moses is not always proof
against provocation; Elijah loses heart under the juniper
tree, and boastful Peter turns poltroon under the
taunts of a servant-maid. But evermore there waits
and watches over us that infinite compassion that
knows what is in poor man, and remembereth that we
are but dust. For our want-book he has an infinitely
larger supply-book. The same sympathizing Jesus
who raised the Jewish maiden from her bed of death,
:AN OF THE SOUTH. u
who rescued sinking Peter, and pitied a hungry multitude,
and wept with the sisters of Bethany ere he
raised a dead brother to life, is living yet. His love,
as old Rutherford said, "hath neither brim nor bottom."
This compassionate Jesus ought to be living also in
the persons of those whom he makes his representatives.
"Bear ye one anotherls burdens and so fulfill
the law of Christ." That law is love. This law of
Christian sympathy works in two ways: it either helps
our fellow-creatures get rid of their burdens, or, if failing
in that, it helps them to carry the load more lightly.
We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the
weak, and not to please ourselves. Here, for example,
is a strong, rich, well-manned church ; some of its members
are dying of dignity and others are debilitated with
indolence. Yonder is a feeble church in numbers and
money. Let the man who counts one in the strong
church go where he can count ten in the weak church.
If the compassionate Christ should come into some of
our churches, I suspect that lie would order more than
one rich, well-fed member off his cushion, and send
him to work in some mission school or struggling
young enterprise.
That early Church was saturated with the compassionate
spirit of their Lord. They fulfilled the "law
of Christ." The only genuine successors of those apostles
are the load-lifters. The second coming of Christ
in these days must be in the persons of those who bear
U- K..-J
iiiv. uuiucus ui me wcaK, conacscencl to men of low estate,
and seek out and save the lost. One great need
of the times is for rich people and cultured people to
understand their duty and do it; otherwise wealth and
culture is a snare and a curse. Jesus Christ exerted
His divine might and infinite love in bearing the load
of man's sin and sorrows. Consecration means copying
the compassionate Christ. Power means debt?the
debt we owe to the poor, the feeble, the sick, the ignorant,
the fallen, the guilty and the perishing. May
God inspire us, and help us to pay that debt!
Brooklyn, N. Y.
MY TASK.
By Edward Everett Hale.
Not mine to mount to courts where seraphs sing,
Or glad archangels soar on outstretched wings;
Not mine in union with celestial choirs
To sound heaven's trump or strike the gentler wires;
Not mine to stand enrolled at crystal gates,
Where Michael thunders or where Uriel waits.
But lesser worlds a Father's kindness know;
Be mine some simple service here below?
To weep with those who weep, their joys to share,
Their pain to solace or their burdens bear;
Some widow in her agony to meet;
Some exile in his new-found home to greet ;
To serve some child of Thine, and so serve Thee.
Lo, here am I! To such a work ?~nd me!
Often consider and contemplate the joys of heaven, that
when they have filled thy desires, which are the sails
of the soul, thou mayest steer only thither and never look
back.?Jeremy Taylor.