“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psalms 126:5-6)
Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission tells that when he was a college student he had charge of a man with a gangrenous foot. It was his duty to dress the man’s foot every day. He soon learned that his patient was not a Christian, and had not been in a church for forty years. Such was his hatred of religion that he refused to go inside the church at his wife’s funeral.
Young Taylor made up his mind to speak to this man about his soul every time he visited him. The man cursed him, and refused to allow him to pray. The student persisted in presenting Christ until one day he said to himself, “It is no use,” and was leaving the room.
When he reached the door, he turned around and saw the man looking after him as if to say, “Why, you are going away today without speaking to me about Christ!” Then the young man burst into tears, and returning to the bedside, said, “Whether you wish me to or not, I must deliver my soul. Will you let me pray with you?” The man assented, began to weep, and was converted.
Mr. Taylor says, “God broke my heart, that through me He might break this wicked man’s heart.”
Ask now that the Holy Spirit may give you a tender heart, and make your eyes a fountain of tears, that, with the sympathy of Christ, you may seek the lost and perishing.