Springfield, Illinois, October 12, 1876.
My dearly loved Wife:
... Well,—, ease is not our portion here. We are associated with a suffering, sorrowing Christ. But our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And as you say, “The Lord is most precious to us when we are brought low.” How often I have realized this. Death has to be carried about in us — the dying of the Lord Jesus. It is a practical thing. And when this is so, life works in us. When we groan being burdened, our hearts go out after the One who is coining to end our groaning, and the thought of Him gives joy amid the sorrow.
I have been thinking much for a day or two of the sympathy of the Lord Jesus. “He took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” In this I think there was both sympathy and power. If we are in the presence of suffering, we suffer. It is sympathetic, and we will suffer in proportion to the perfection of our sympathy. The power of sympathy in Jesus was perfect, and His suffering was equal therefore to that of the sufferer. As a High Priest He was made perfect through suffering. Sympathy in the Aaronic priesthood was imperfect. In Christ it was perfect. He learned it in the presence of suffering. He has suffered in spirit through sympathy all that poor suffering mortals can suffer. But in Him there was not only the power of sympathy, but the power to relieve the sufferer. He took our infirmities. In taking into His own spirit the power of the suffering that was before Him, He triumphed over it and set the sufferer free. The power of death pressed upon His spirit at the grave of Lazarus and He groaned within Himself; but here He triumphed, and brought life out of death. The power of death gave way before Him. What a High Priest we have!
We are allowed to suffer because it is needed. But His sympathy with us in it is perfect, and when we are in it He gives us power to go through it, or lifts us out of it when the lesson is learned. I suppose there are special needs, and connected with these, special dealing, and when the need is met the dealing is over. And then there may be a continual need, and a continual dealing about it. Paul received a thorn in the flesh. It was not removed, because constantly needed. If we begin to think we are something when we are nothing, some special thing will be sent to teach us our mistake and bring us into the dust. But beside this, something constant may be needed to keep us constantly in the sense of being nothing. So I suppose that Paul’s thorn was a constant reminder to him of his own nothingness. How blessed if we are brought to the perfect knowledge of our weakness and of the power of Christ. “My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” There is no room for divine strength except where there is weakness. If we realize our weakness perfectly, we will find in the midst of it the perfection of His strength. It is good if we are brought to this: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
I am glad you went down to see J — and his bride. I trust the discussions with him and Geo. R. may not have been in vain. The Lord may use them. I am sure, too, if they have gained nothing, the truth has become clearer to my own mind, and to yours, too, I doubt not. And this may be the purpose the Lord had in it.
I hope you will write to W— and A— so as to prevent any disappointment. I would like to see them.
I am going on here with the work, having meetings every night. There are very few through the week. But there are two or three deeply interested. I have been visiting much through the day. It takes a great deal of walking, some of them being two and three miles apart. I think the Lord is blessing a little inside and outside. I had a long talk yesterday with an Episcopalian who is very anxious about his soul. He is seeking after assurance, but is sadly hindered through the constant bias his mind has received through long years of formality and legal teaching. But I believe the Lord will lead him on. I think he has got in too deeply to escape....