"TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES."
THERE is no truth taught in the word of God more precious and full of comfort to those who are suffering from temptation than this: that out of Christ's suffering, when tempted, flows Christ's sympathy for us when we are tempted. "We have not an high-priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them which are tempted." "Touched with a sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame;
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For he hath felt the same." Because we are sinners and are beset with temptations, we need one who was also tempted, but is "without sin," to strengthen and encourage us to resist our besetments. But it is said that, because Christ was sinless, he could not have experienced those, temptations which spring from the corruptions of our nature. How can he sympathize with us if he did not suffer just as we suffer? It is not necessary that one being should suffer precisely as another suffers, in order to sympathize with him. We can sympathize with those in pain, though our suffering may never have taken precisely the same form. It is only necessary for us to have suffered in order to know what suffering means. The man Jesus had not all the phases of suffering that we have—he did not have the anguish or the weakness that comes from yielding to temptation; and if he could have had such an experience, it would not have made his sympathy for us more complete." Perfect purity is necessary to perfect sympathy. Sin does not quicken feeling—it deadens it; and it is just because the Saviour did not sin that he sympathizes with those who do. For he "suffered, being tempted," and doubtless in that suffering had a vivid conception of the more terrible suffering of those who sin. Two conditions, then, of perfect sympathy meet in Christ: suffering and sinlessness. The fact of his perfect holiness, as well as the fact that he was tempted, gives him perfect sympathy. "No woman mourns so deeply over a fallen sister as she who is all purity and would fly with fear from a tainting thought. So Christ's sweet sympathy springs from his spotless purity." And his sympathy is in some sense a participation of the sufferings of the tempted. He is moved, "touched," and suffers with the suffering; and "In his measure feels afresh
What every member bears." That this is Christ's sympathy for the tempted was shown in the persecution of the saints by Saul of Tarsus. "The Mediator, feeling their pangs in his own heart, arose from his throne, arrested Saul and demanded, 'Why persecutest thou me?' The head on the throne felt the pain inflicted on his footstool." In that he suffered, being tempted, he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is able to succor us in temptation—able, not only because on the side of his humanity he became personally acquainted with temptation, but able, because he is God, and will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able to endure, "but will, with the temptation, make a way for our escape that we may be able to bear it." Thanks be to God for a divine Saviour who can be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities."—The Methodist.