The Present Truth, vol. 14
January 27, 1898
“The Broken Heart” The Present Truth 14, 4, pp. 83, 84.
JESUS died of a broken heart. Psalm 69:20. This is intensely significant. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.1
It was the ingratitude and the reproach of those for whom he endured the cruel suffering of the cross, that broke His heart. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.2
And when, in that great and awful day that is to come, all those who hold to ingratitude or reproach see what they have really done, and what they have lost, reproach will also break their hearts—though with them it will be self-reproach. Who can bear it! O then please do not any longer be ungrateful or reproachful in the presence of the cross of Christ. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.3
A deeper truth than this is that it would be the same with those persons if they were in heaven itself instead of in hell. To them heaven would be the same as hell; for it will not be what is outside of them, but what is inside, that will hurt. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.4
And a yet deeper truth is that even though their ingratitude and reproach did not return upon them, and they were placed in heaven, yet they would die of a broken heart. For to take these persons, wholly unacquainted with true and lasting joy, and place them in the transcendent and eternal bliss of heaven, with the assurance that it was all and eternally theirs—the overwhelming consciousness of this fact would break the heart. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.5
Do you not know that the heart can be broken by joy as truly as by sorrow! Do you not know that such a thing has occurred in this world—though of course in this world of trouble and sorrow, a heart broken by joy is far less usual than hearts broken by sorrow! PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.6
The one great consideration in all this is that it is not all of heaven to be in heaven, nor is it all of hell to be in hell. The all of either place is in being fit for it. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.7
To be fit for heaven is what will find heaven to be all of heaven. And—awful truth!—to be fit for hell is what will find hell to be all of hell. No one can possibly find either place without the fitness for it; and there is no other place. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 83.8
O then, dear friend, do not, against the cross of Christ, heap up ingratitude and reproach that fits for hell, and that will surely break the heart. Receive Him, yield yourself to Him, that now you may become acquainted with and enjoy the true and everlasting joy of heaven, that fits for heaven, so that when heaven itself, with all its glory, with all its transcendent bliss, with its fulness of eternal joy, is placed upon the hearts of the redeemed, your heart will not be broken by it. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 84.1
Everything that occurred in the life of Christ on earth is laden with meaning. And this one—the most awful of all—is freighted with a most awful meaning. That broken heart! Think of it carefully, study it reverently. PTUK January 27, 1898, page 84.2
A. T. JONES.