Divine Sympathy
“As a preacher, Newton had a very clear goal: ‘To preach what I ought and to be what I preach.’”
― John Snyder, Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty
John Newton (1725-1807) began as a captain of slave ships. But when he converted to Christianity, he became an outspoken abolitionist, pastor, and hymnist. He wrote many familiar hymns, such as, “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.”
Newton wrote many pastoral letters throughout his lifetime, in which he stirs his congregants to love and good works.
He writes to one grieving believer of the hope that can be found in the truth that Jesus sympathizes with us in our present sorrow.
In a way inconceivable to us, but consistent with his supreme dignity and perfection of happiness and glory, he still feels for his people.
I write not to remind you of what you have lost, but of what you have which you cannot lose.
[Jesus] condescended to mingle tears with mourners, and wept over distresses which he intended to relieve. He is still the same in his exalted state; compassions dwell within his heart. In a way inconceivable to us, but consistent with his supreme dignity and perfection of happiness and glory, he still feels for his people. When Saul persecuted the members upon earth, the head complained from heaven; and sooner shall the most tender mother sit insensible and inattentive to the cries and wants of her infant, than the Lord Jesus be an unconcerned spectator of his suffering children. No, with the eye, and the ear, and the heart of a friend, He attends to their sorrows; He counts their sighs, puts their tears in his bottle; and when our spirits are overwhelmed within us, He knows our path, and adjusts the time, the measure of our trials, and everything that is necessary for our present support and seasonable deliverance, with the same unerring wisdom and accuracy as He weighed the mountains in scales, and hills in a balance, and meted out the heavens with a span.
He knows our sorrows, not merely as he knows all things, but as one who has been in our situation, and who, though without sin himself, endured, when upon earth, inexpressibly more for us than he will ever lay upon us.
Still more, besides his benevolence, he has an experimental sympathy. He knows our sorrows, not merely as he knows all things, but as one who has been in our situation, and who, though without sin himself, endured, when upon earth, inexpressibly more for us than he will ever lay upon us. He has sanctified poverty, pain, disgrace, temptation, and death, by passing through these states; and in whatever states his people are, they may by faith have fellowship with him in their sufferings, and he will, by sympathy and love, have fellowship and interest with them in theirs. What, then, shall we fear, or of what shall we complain? when all our concerns are written upon his heart, and their management, to the very hairs of our head, are under his care and providence; when he pities us more than we can do ourselves, and has engaged his almighty power to sustain and relieve us. However, as he is tender, he is wise also; he loves us, but especially in regard to our interests.
He is near at hand to support their spirits, to moderate their grief, and in the issue to sanctify it; so that they shall come out of the furnace refined, more humble, and more spiritual.
How impertinent would it be to advise you to forget or suspend the feelings which such a stroke must excite! Who can help feeling? nor is sensibility in itself sinful. Christian resignation is very different from that stoical stubbornness, which is most easily practiced by those unamiable characters whose regards center wholly in self: nor could we in a proper manner exercise submission to the will of God under our trials if we did not feel them. He who knows our frame is pleased to allow that afflictions, for the present, are not joyous, but grievous. But to them that fear him He is near at hand to support their spirits, to moderate their grief, and in the issue to sanctify it; so that they shall come out of the furnace refined, more humble, and more spiritual. There is, however, a part assigned us; we are to pray for the help in need; and we are not willfully to give way to the impression of overwhelming sorrow. We are to endeavor to turn our thoughts to such considerations as are suited to alleviate it; our deserts as sinners, the many mercies we are still indulged with, the still greater afflictions which many of our fellow creatures endure, and, above all, the sufferings of Jesus, that man of sorrows, who made himself intimately acquainted with grief for our sakes.