He has gone before you…

“Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.”
Isaiah 53:4

In order to the perfection of His character as the High Priest
of His people, a Brother born for adversity in order to
be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” He must
Himself suffer. Because He must know from painful experience what
sorrow meant; what a wounded spirit and a broken bleeding
heart, a burdened and a beclouded mind, was. Therefore in this school
He must be taught, and disciplined, and trained; He must
“learn obedience by the things which He suffered;” He must
be made “perfect through sufferings.”

And oh, how deeply has He been taught, and how thoroughly
has He been trained, and how well has He learned thus to
sympathize with a suffering Church!

When you have gone to Jesus; He has trod that path before you,
has passed through that very trouble. His spirit has been
accustomed to grief, His heart schooled in trial, sorrow in
some of its acutest forms has been His companion; and
now He is prepared to bend upon you a melting eye, to
lend an attentive ear and a feeling heart, and to say,
“Brother, I have known all, I have felt all, I have passed
through all; I can sympathize with all.”

He has gone before you;

Because He has left a fragrance on the brim
of that very cup of sorrow you are now drinking and has
bedewed with tears and left the traces of His blood on that
very path along which you are now walking. He has been
taught in that very school in which you are now learning.

What encouragement to take your case, in the sweet
simplicity of faith, and lay it before the Lord! …

What a wonderful High Priest is Jesus!

As the bleeding Sacrifice, you may lay your hand of faith
upon His head, and acknowledge your deepest guilt.

And, as the merciful Priest, you may lay your head
on His bosom, and disclose your deepest sorrow.

He has gone before you!

O, my precious Savior!

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