Christ Shares His People's Sorrows

Christ Shares His People's Sorrows

O child of God this grief
That bows your spirit low
Is yours but half, for Christ Himself,
Still shares His people's woe.

His wisdom planned it out
Then bore it on His heart
Till gently on your untried back
Love laid the lesser part.

So take it all with joy,
Together bear the cross
For while you suffer He distills,
A heaven from your loss.

Beneath His secret will
Subscribe with ready pen,
Add to this sorrow God has sent
A resolute "Amen."

Each day spend out in faith,
Nor prove His labor vain;
Cast still on Christ the pressing weight
Who only can sustain.

To Lady Kenmure
On the death of her son
October 1639
Letter 287

Faith Cook, Grace in Winter: Rutherford in Verse (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 37. Quoted by Fitzpatrick, Elyse, A Steadfast Heart (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2006), 66 - 67.