05 THE TEARFUL MOOD

05 -- THE TEARFUL MOOD

Then there is a pathetic mood, or the tearful mood of the Spirit. Elisha was weeping like his heart would break and Hazael said, "What are you weeping about?" He said, "I know what you are going to do. The Spirit told me."

Jeremiah, my favorite prophet, preached in one community twenty years and never had a convert. They put him in jail; and he bought land in that neighborhood after twenty years of preaching. He was a great prophet. He had a tearful mood and said, "Oh that my eyes were fountains of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of Zion." This is the time when modern philosophy would have us believe that anybody who cries is a weakling. If your folks die you must not cry. It would be very impolite. Of course if you went to a theater you might weep a little. But to weep about anything worthwhile is to be tabooed. You must not show any sign of team. But did you know the human in us needs to be kept alive?

Jesus was human the perfect human -- as well as the perfect Deity -- and at the grave of Lazarus, and over Jerusalem’s lost opportunities He poured out His tears. I would not take a gold mine for those two words, "Jesus wept." How human He was and how He came up close to those who needed Him. The human cry. He wept.

You know when women argue with us we laugh, and if they scold we take a walk and get out of the way; but if one breaks down and begins to cry, then we surrender. Anybody would be a brute who would not break down at a woman’s tears. That is her greatest argument; and I do not want you to think it is a weak argument or that I am reflecting upon them. I am saying it is the finest thing left in humanity, a woman’s tears, and we men have been thrown out against the world until it is hard for us to have tears -- so that we are a little less human than she is and anything that would take that fine, delicate thing away from woman, whatever it is, will lose the race more than it can know. A tearful mood -- a time when you feel like tears -- Christian folks, you have not backslidden or sinned or lost any of your folks by death, yet you feel like you could wring tears out of your fingers. I have gone to the pulpit when I was full of tears. God somehow, that time, seemed to break folks up and melt all hearts. What a wonderful musician the Holy Ghost is, and how He knows when to put His finger on the right key to bring out the harmony. If we only knew how to be more submissive to Him, what marvelous and fine things He would accomplish.

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