110 THE EVENING PRIMROSE. 



of gladness are rendered brighter, by the smiling 

 participation of those who are taught of God to re- 

 joice wilh them that do rejoice. 



I think tlie whole bible does not afford us so af- 

 fecting a lesson as that contained in two words in 

 St. John's gospel — " Jesus weptP It is not merely 

 the act of his weeping, but the occasion, that pre- 

 sents so exquisite an instance of the sympathy dear 

 to afflicted man. Our Lord was on the point of 

 turning the grief of his friends into unbounded joy, 

 and very few among us, wilh such anticipation close 

 at hand, would be able to find a tear for the mourn- 

 ers — our minds would be too much occupied with 

 iheir approaching, and most overwhelming delight. 

 But the holy Jesus, touched with a feeling of all 

 our infirmities, looked on the present anguish, and 

 wept wilh the heart-broken sisters. Oh ! how un- 

 like that cold, unsympalhizing spirit, that seeks to 

 force on the writhing sufferer its own superficial view 

 of the passing calamity ; that chides the gushing 

 tear, and preaches a lesson of indifference to a 

 mind stretched on the rack of torture ! Yet this 

 is often done, with the best and kindest intention, 

 through forgetfulncss of tlic great and precious ex- 

 ample of Him who could not err ! I have expe- 

 rienced this injudicious treatment, when every feel- 

 ing of my heart was lacerated and torn, by a loss 

 no less bitter— far more sudden and terrible than 

 that of Martha and Mary. I have then been loldj 



