These all express to our hearts the wonderful tenderness of God to his
children. But there is nothing in the material world that forms a full and
perfect analogy for the things in the spiritual world. These are too high.
If we do not have the tenderness of God in our hearts, our life comes
short of being a full and true life. The Bible tells us to "be kind one to
another, tender-hearted." There is no true holiness of life without
tenderness. As we get deeper into God, we become more tender of heart.
There are some things that will prevent this tender-heartedness. Just a
little feeling of resentment, a little desire for retaliation, or a secret
wish for something to befall those who have done us an injury will callous
the heart and harden the affections. When we have been slighted by some
one or misjudged, oh, how Satan strives to get us to thinking much about
this, and to work a "hurt" feeling into our heart. Even to think about the
meanness of others will bring a harshness and coldness into the inner
life. That which we condemn in others will, if we think and talk much
about it, creep into our own hearts.
You say you are saved and sanctified. Thank God for such a blessed
experience; but you have much yet to gain. You have not yet attained to
the full depth of anything. There is yet a tenderness of heart you can
reach only through many and varied experiences. There is tenderness of
voice, tenderness of manner, tenderness of feeling, tenderness of thought,
you will attain to only through much and deep communion with God. It is
those intimate and familiar talks with Jesus that fashion us into his
glorious image. A brother minister related to me a few mornings ago his
experience of the night before. He lay awake, he said, for a long time and
had a sweet talk with the Lord. So intimate was the communion that,
turning over to go to sleep, he said, half unthinkingly, "Good night," as
if parting from a dear friend. Such close union with Jesus gives us
clearer visions of his character and stamps his beauty upon our souls.
Have you not seen those who are harsh, rough, and unfeeling in their
speech and manner. No one wants to be like them. We are glad to get away
from them. They measure a person by their standard, and if he is not what
they think he should be, they speak about him in an unloving and unfeeling
manner. We feel that something coarse and flinty needs to be taken out of
their nature. We do not say they are not sanctified, but they are too
bitter and severe. They need to be bathed in the love of God; they need to
be immersed in the sea of his gentleness. We have seen, on the other hand,
those who were so feeling, so quiet, tender, and gentle, that their
presence was like the breath of a sweet spring morning. There was a
tenderness in their eye, a softness in their voice, a pathos in their
feeling, that cast over your soul a sense of delight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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