HOLY GHOST TEARS... by G.D Watson

G. D. Watson is the author of "Spiritual feasts" from which this excerpt was taken.
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Holy Ghost Tears
Tears have a language just as definite and emphatic as smiles or gestures. Words do not constitute the only language we speak, for everywhere there are many languages spoken by every human being. There is a language in our gait, our tones of voice, our eyes, smiles, gestures, and our physical movements, in our laughter, facial expression, and in our tears.

The Bible is full of tears. See how the patriarchs "lifted up their voices and wept". Read in the prophets how the tears poured down their cheeks night and day. Go through the New Testament and see Jesus weeping with His friends at the grave of Lazarus. Read Paul's Epistles where the burning tears fell on the page as he wrote.

What a vast ocean of heart life and pathos and feeling pervades the whole Bible. It is not a stoical, human, philosophical book; it throbs with deep feeling from beginning to end. It is a wonderful blessing to any human soul to have the Holy Ghost plow up the deep, interior fountains, and melt all the emotions, and cause the heart to pour itself out in tears.

There are different types of Holy Ghost tears. There are the tears which flow from conviction of sin, especially when we see the sin in the light of God and look at it in contrast with the Divine compassion and longsuffering toward us.

All truth, to be forcible, must be seen with its two sides as a whole and not as a half truth. And so the sight of our sins, would not of itself break up the depths of the heart into weeping. But when this vision of sin is seen in connection with God's longsuffering and compassion towards us, we get a little glimpse into the tenderness and merciful feeling of God for sinners. Then sin seems heart breaking, and so the conscience is touched to the quick, which produces a flow of tears.

It was this kind of weeping that Mary Magdalene poured out over the feet of her precious Lord. It was this kind of tears that flowed thick and fast from the eyes of Peter when he heard the cock crow.

No sinner can be made to weep by a mere cold, formal sight of his sins. Mt. Sinai made the Jews tremble, but did not make them weep, and so the denunciation of sin or the portrayal of it can never of itself produce repentant tears. It is only when the sins are seen under the soft, melting light of infinite pity and love that the heart is broken and the tears flow.

Law may reveal sin, but nothing in the universe except love will make a man hate his sins. Water may be locked up in ice, but you cannot drink it till it is melted, and it takes the warmth of the tenderest love to bring forth the waters of repentance. Continue reading