E. M. Bounds in the Christian Advocate once wrote; a tearful
ministry is at a premium in the Bible; however, it may be discounted by our gospel of fun,
which seeks to make people feel good and laugh heartily. God's Hebrew prophets were
serious men - men of the tearful eye and of the tearful heart. Jeremiah was the weeping
prophet who wanted his head to be water and his eyes a fountain of tears that he might
weep day and night. Isaiah, the most gifted of them, said, "I will weep bitterly,
labor not to comfort me." The minister is not to deal with a system or a church - he
is neither a professor nor a pope - but he deals with men, and a tearful tenderness is the
gift for soul winning power. The ministry of Christ was a tearful ministry. The summary of
His ministry is drawn by the divine pen, "who in the days of his flesh, when he had
offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears." His ministry
broke His heart as well as sacrificed His life. The true apostles of Christ, the bravest
and the best, have ever been, like their Lord, tearful men. They have followed in His
footsteps "weeping, bearing precious seed," and all their songs and success have
grown out of a soil that they have watered by their tears. Paul's ministry was tuned to
this strain of tearful tenderness. "Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and
with many tears." "I ceased not to warn every one night and day with
tears." His letters were inspired by hearty compassion and sorrow. "For out of
much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears." "I ...
tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." His
strongest and sharpest utterances were softened and bathed in tears. Timothy's ministry
was one of tears: tears that touched Paul and gave intensity and charm to Timothy and his
ministry. Tears are the symbols and fruit of a compassionate ministry. How we need to be
in the company and school of Christ till our hearts are broken and we have caught somewhat
of the sober seriousness, somewhat of the infinite tearfulness, somewhat of the fathomless
sorrow that possessed Him!
A. G. Osterberg was an eyewitness of the Azusa revival. He gives some interesting insights
into this remarkable move of the Spirit. "I have been asked what in your judgment was
the outstanding spiritual phenomenon of the revival?" My reply was, "Without
question, it can be answered in one word, namely TEARS! The greatest hindrance in the
entire realm of revivals is the hardness of heart and spirit. Its cause is spiritual
rebellion against God, exercised in an embezzled human sovereignty. Among Christians,
hardness of heart is probably the greatest single obstacle to revival. The Azusa revival
began where every revival should rightly begin - in repentant tears. It began in tears, it
lived in tears, and when the tears ended, the Azusa revival ended. Tears of guilt
confession; tears of fault confession; tears in humble contrition; tears of self-denial in
expression of soul humility, tears of sheer gladness and heavenly joy; Holy Ghost tears
intermingling testimony and praise, often overflowing upon the congregation as a
benediction from the battlements of glory."
When Mrs. McAulay went to toil in the East of London with her devoted husband, she was so
heartbroken at what she saw of the ravages of sin and the impotence of the Christian
Church that she cried herself blind. The sight of one eye was restored, but she carried
one sightless eye to her grave, thus bearing in her body the marks of the Lord Jesus. She
knew, indeed, what it was to sigh and cry over the abominations done in the city.
From: A Revival Source Center