A Christian Paradox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 27, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 42.

A Christian Paradox

“As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing.” The Christian will have sorrow. No heart will be so sensitive to the sins which crucified Christ Jesus as the heart renewed by grace. Never can such a one look upon sin without sorrow of heart. No heart is so sensitive of others’ sorrows, and woes, and miseries as the heart that has been regenerated by Christ. Such a one will “weep with those who weep.” No heart is so grieved over the downward course of the sinner, over the backsliding course of the cold professor, as the heart in harmony with God, who GRIEVES over the sinning of His children.

The Lord appreciates such sorrow; for He places His mark of eternal security upon those “that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” So Jesus, filled with the Spirit of God, having perfect faith in the loving Father, was the “Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” He wept at the grave of Lazarus; He wept over Jerusalem; He pleaded with God often with “strong crying and tears.” So Christ’s followers will be sorrowFUL, full of sorrow, because of the sad things in this poor, sick, dying world.

“Yet alway rejoicing.” Yes, there is rejoicing; for knowing Christ Jesus, dwelling in Christ Jesus, is a fount of deepest, sweetest joy. That rejoicing is in the Lord. He is mighty—able to save. He is wise—knowing how to save. He is loving—willing, anxious to save. In Him we have salvation. He is our all and in all. Great are the “riches of His grace,” great “the power of His might,” great the “comfort of His love.” In

all things we are enriched in Him. Why should not the Christian rejoice, ever rejoice,—even the “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”?