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Tears
by
Commissioner George Scott Railton (from the Christian Mission
Magazine, August 1876)
Parting
sorrows, so often repeated, and yet felt so keenly perhaps
contribute more largely to the sum total of human tears than
any other cause. Tears, the overflow and the relief of sorrow
in some, are often the seeds of greater sorrow still in those
who see them. There is a magnetic influence in tears which
communicates feeling rapidly in all directions; but in
addition to this the sight of tears generally leaves behind a
deep and lasting impression. This seems to indicate that there
is a harmony and a sympathy in human nature still, which can
be wrought upon very readily and very effectively. And to us,
whose main business it is to move men upon a subject of the
first importance, it becomes a most interesting question how
to shed the most tears, and to make others shed the largest
quantity.
Of course there is feeling at times too deep and strong for
tears but as a rule, tears are not shed simply because people
do not feel sufficiently to shed them. Let us feel more and we
shall make other people feel more too. It is impossible for
the truth of God to be released without producing a great deal
of feeling, and, in a world where there is so much wrong, to
realise the truth must be to feel a great deal of sorrow. No
doubt this is one main reason why He who was the Truth, and
fully understood the Father, was a man of sorrow and
acquainted with grief.
Why do we not weep at parting with sinners out of doors? Here
is a crowd of poor sinners. Some of them have just stood and
have scarcely heard anything yet. We grieve to turn away from
them. But those men have stood for more than half an hour.
That man and that woman, without bonnet or shawl, were about
when we commenced, and have listened eagerly all the time. A
city crowd of passing strangers to one another and to us. We
must go to our indoor service, for it is time; but oh, what is
to become of these people? We have never met them all before,
and shall never meet them all again. The last word, the last
look, before we meet the judgement seat! As far as we and our
testimony for Jesus is concerned, these men and women are
dying now. Parting forever! Parting without hope of ever
meeting some of them in God’s presence above! Oh, why do not
tears burst from our eyes ere we turn away to our procession
or to walk homewards?
Is it because we do not feel real brotherly love to these pour
souls? We should not like to leave our own brother or sister
there in the streets amongst that crowed to live and die like
the rest. We should not like our own relatives to stay behind
and perish. And yet these men and women are all our brethren,
for whom Jesus died, for whom Jesus weeps and pleads still.
Oh, to feel it more!
Is it because we are so much occupied with our own word, the
service we have held, or are going to hold, that we really do
not think just then about others? If so, is not our service,
to a large extent, a mere form? We are there to expressly to
care for others, and yet our minds are so taken up with our
own joys, our own affairs, in fact, that we forget, at any
rate, at the solemn parting moment the very object of our
coming. The leader, thanking God for so good and open-air
meeting, wondering why so-and-so does not sing louder,
questioning whether he has given our the best hymn, and what
will be the best to follow it with, praying for a good time
inside, and singing aloud in joyous confidence, and the poor
lost sheep he wanted to lead home all behind still at the
corner there! All busy, very busy, and with their Master’s
business too; but too much engaged with their own things after
all to look with pitying, melting eyes to the things of
others!
Oh for an overflowing flood of tender love of souls! Oh, for
singing choked with sobs and processions broke up through the
ungovernable emotion of holy men and women, broken-hearted on
account of sins and sorrows of other people! Do we wonder
while we feel so little about their straying away?
If we ourselves could but see our dying Saviour, as he draws
night to many a soul, and turns away sickened and grieved by
their continued refusal, if we looked into those eyes that
weep still, and saw the heaving of that sad breast that is
pierced as ever; so always, with the keenest of sorrows, the
sorrow of a thoroughly disinterested sympathy, surely those
who come to listen to us would not find it so easy to get
away.
May God send us all a deep, all-consuming concern for the
souls of our neighbours, that shall rend our hearts, and bow
our souls, and make our lives one ceaseless flow of sweetness,
tenderest compassion for the wretched blinded victims of sin,
whose look of horror and anguish before the judgement seat of
Christ will otherwise recall to us many a listless, unfeeling
prayer, and many a hard, emotionless speech.
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