Born with a tear in his eye by Octavius Winslow Evening Thoughts

The life of our adorable Lord was a life of continuous trial. From the moment he entered our world, he became leagued with suffering. He identified himself with it in its almost endless forms. He seems to have been born with a tear in his eye, with a shadow of sadness on his brow.

He was prophesied as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and, from the moment he touched the horizon of our earth, from that moment his sufferings commenced. He did not come to indulge in a life of tranquillity and repose, he did not come to quaff the cup of earthly sweets. He came to suffer. He came to bear the curse. He came to drain the deep cup of wrath. He came to weep. He came to bleed. He came to die.

Our Saviour was a cross-bearing Saviour. Our Lord was a suffering Lord. He turned his back upon the pleasures, the riches, the luxuries, and even the common comforts of this world, preferring a life of obscurity, penury, and suffering.

Jesus, hungered, thirsted, labored, sorrowed, wept, suffered, bled, died. He was scourged, was bruised, was mocked, Was smitten, was spit upon, was nailed to the tree, Was pierced, was slain.