from Octavius Winslow's, "Morning Thoughts"

"Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows."
    Isaiah 53:4

In order to the perfection of His character as the High Priest
of His people, as the Brother born for adversity, in order to
be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," He must
Himself suffer. He must know from painful experience what
sorrow meant; what a wounded spirit and a broken bleeding
heart, a burdened and a beclouded mind, were. In this school
He must be taught, and disciplined, and trained; He must
"learn obedience by the things which He suffered;" He must
be made "perfect through sufferings."

And oh, how deeply has He been taught, and how thoroughly
has He been trained, and how well has He learned thus to
sympathize with a suffering Church!

You have gone, it may be, with your trouble to your earthly
friend; you have unfolded your tale of woe, have unveiled
every feeling and emotion. But, ah! how have the vacant
countenance, the wandering eye, the listless air, the cold
response, told you that your friend, with all his love, could
not enter into your case! The care that darkened your
brow had never shaded his; the sorrow that lacerated
your heart had never touched his; the cup you were
drinking he had never tasted.

What was lacking?

Sympathy, growing out of an identity of circumstance.

You have gone to another; He has trod that path before you,
He has passed through that very trouble, His spirit has been
accustomed to grief, His heart schooled in trial, sorrow in
some of its acutest forms has been His companion; and
now He is prepared to bend upon you a melting eye, to
lend an attentive ear and a feeling heart, and to say,
"Brother, I have known all, I have felt all, I have passed
through all; I can sympathize with all."

That Friend of friends, that Brother of brothers, is Jesus.

He has gone before you; He has left a fragrance on the brim
of that very cup of sorrow you are now drinking. He has
bedewed with tears and left the traces of His blood on that
very path along which you are now walking. He has been
taught in that very school in which you are now learning.

Then what encouragement to take your case, in the sweet
simplicity of faith, and lay it before the Lord! To go and tell
Jesus, confessing to Him, and over Him, the sin which has
called forth the chastisement, and then the grief which that
chastisement has occasioned.

What a wonderful High Priest is Jesus!

As the bleeding Sacrifice, you may lay your hand of faith
upon His head, and acknowledge your deepest guilt.

And, as the merciful Priest, you may lay your head
on His bosom, and disclose your deepest sorrow.

O my precious Savior! must You sink to this deep
humiliation, and endure this bitter suffering, in order
to enter into my lonely sorrow!