will be seen to be greater than the sorrow. He is the great nerve-center to which thrill all sensations which touch us who are His members.” We must carefully note that it is with our infirmities that Christ sym pathises; not our sins. Sir Robert Anderson: “If we yield to sin we need UNSPEAKABLE GIFT Say, what is the meaning of Christ mas-tide, The day that is dearer than all beside? Say, what is its message, what does it tell. That childhood and age should love it so well? It meaneth that once in the long ago A Baby was born in a manger low, While seraphim sang of His wondrous birth, And sages came from the ends of the earth. It means that the Christ in the heart is born As truly as once on the Christmas mom; And all who will welcome Him to abide Will find that each day is a Christ mas-tide. It ringeth a message more loud and clear. Proclaiming the glad millennial year. For Bethlehem's star has risen once more, And the world's long night is al most o'er. Ring louder, ye bells of the Christmas- tide; Ye heralds, re-echo it far and wide; Tell out to the nations again and again, The Gospel of peace, goodwill to men. — A. B. Simpson not look to Him for sympathy, though a penitent confession will bring par don full and free through His aton ing work.” What, then, are “infirmi ties ?” Stated simply, they are the sinless consequences of sin; and in the main they are three in number: the sorrows of life; physical limita- 30
“He was tempted like as we are yet without sin.” The word “without” means “apart from” ; He was not able to sin. Dean Alford: “The words im ply that throughout the temptations, in their origin, in their process, in their result, sin had nothing in Him; He was free and separate from it” (II Cor. 5:21; I Peter 2:22; I John 3:5). Some argue that *because of His dignity and sinlessness, the Lord Jesus is unable to enter into our posi tion or understand our problems; but this is by no means so. Is it necessary that a doctor should himself have had the disease before he can help the man who comes to him seeking deliv erance from it? Is it only the re claimed drunkard that can help one who is a slave to strong drink?'No: “it is the love that suffers, not the weakness which fails, that is able to help.” Because He was tempted, and was sinless throughout the trial, He is now compassionate. The Greek word is “sumpathesai” which is translated “touch with the feeling of” and from which we get our word “sympathy.” In Hebrews 10:34 this word occurs once more in the New Testament and it is translated “compassion.” Sir Robert Anderson: “He is able to sym pathise. Do you know the meaning of that word? It is to feel with; a sym pathiser is one who comes near to you and enters intelligently into your dis tress and shares your feeling about it. But there is even more than that in the sympathy of our Lord Jesus; it is the most wonderful and only per fect balm for a broken heart, and it has this peculiar quality; it quiets and soothes the spirit, and it results in the distress or sorrow taking a secondary place in the thoughts, and in Himself taking the first place until the heart clings to Him, because He has become to it what He never was before; so we believe it was with Mary of Bethany. And such confidence in Him grows out of this experience, that whatever the sorrow may be, it will be left in His hands, and the mind will be stayed on Him, for He
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