Christ, Sympathy with the Sufferings of – Charles Spurgeon
THE outside world knows nothing about Christ’s soul sufferings. They draw a picture of him, they carve a piece of wood or ivory, but they do not know his soul-sufferings; they cannot enter into them. Nay, the mass of his own people even do not know them, for they are not made conformable to those sufferings by a spiritual fellowship. We have not that keen sense of mental things to sympathize with such grievings as he had, and even the favored ones, the three, the elect out of the elect, who have the most of spiritual graces, and who have therefore the most of suffering to endure, and the most depression of spirits, even they cannot pry into the fullness of the mystery. God only knows the soul-anguish of the Savior when he sweat great drops of blood; angels saw it, but yet they understood it not. They must have wondered more when they saw the Lord of life and glory sorrowful with exceeding sorrowfulness, even unto death, than when they saw this round world spring into beautiful existence from nothingness, or when they saw Jehovah garnish the heavens with his Spirit, and with his hand form the crooked serpent. Brethren, we cannot expect to know the length and breadth and height of these things, but as our own experience deepens and darkens we shall know more and more of what Christ suffered in the garden.