We have sung, "No days are dark to me." This can indeed be true, but it is not to be taken in the sense that there will be no clouds nor rainfall. Show me a man who never has a cloud to float across his sky, and I will show you a man who has not faith enough to see clearly in the sunlight. It is those whose faith pierces through the cloud and keeps the smiling, sunlit face of Christ in view that have the truest, sweetest joy. Their rejoicing is in the Lord. By bravery and force of will some may shut themselves against sorrow and soon become insensible to it. But the heart that is steeled against sorrow is in all probability so calloused4 that it can not experience joy. Those who know the deepest sorrow may ofttimes know the fullest joy, and that in the midst of their sorrow. Do not harden your heart against sorrow, but look to Jesus for that balm which heals, that grace which sustains, that comfort which gladdens. Some have thought that true joy consists in never having a sorrow; that those who have sorrow have not found the way of peace. In this they err5. Those who never have a sorrow rejoice because they have no sorrows, but some who have sorrow have learned to rejoice in the Lord. This is truest joy.
"Sorrowful," said one who was crucified with Christ, "yet always rejoicing." He never once denied having sorrow; nay6, he said, "I have great heaviness, and continual sorrow in my heart." But he also said, "I glory." It was the deep sorrow that made him most like Jesus. He had feeling. "We sorrow," he said, "but not as those who have no hope." The world knows a sorrow that the Christian7 does not know. Christians8 should be careful lest in hardening themselves against feeling they do not render themselves incapable9 of feeling compassion10, sympathy, and pity.
Let the tears flow. If you keep them back, the fountain will dry up. May the Lord pity those who have no tears! Jesus wept. The apostle Paul said, "Out of much affliction and anguish11 of heart I wrote unto you with many tears." Oh, that unfeeling heart that can not suffer, that dry heart that has no fountain of tears! It weeps not over the sorrows of others and consequently can not rejoice when others are joyful12. Only those who weep can truly rejoice.
You rejoice because you and your family are in good health, because your friends are smiling upon you, because circumstances surrounding you are favorable, because you have an abundance of good things to eat and of clothing to wear. But your rejoicing is only in earthly things. We are to be grateful for these things, but they are only the sea-foam of joy; the water lies beneath. True joy is to rejoice not only <i>in</i> the Lord but <i>with</i> the Lord. Rejoice in those things in which Jesus and the angels rejoice. When your goods are being wasted, you find your deepest joy because God is being glorified13.
If you can not weep with angels, you can not rejoice with them. See that aged14 pilgrim: his has been a hard and stony15 way; loved ones have gone one by one from his embrace; riches have taken wings and flown away; sorrows are multiplied; trials are many; burdens are heavy; he is footsore, sad, and weary. Angels are bending over him weeping. Can you weep with him and them? They comfort him. The sadness of his heart begins to die away; hope begins to dawn. The dawning of the hope causes the angels to rejoice. This is truest joy. Rejoice when souls are saved; rejoice when hearts are gladdened; rejoice when God is praised. This is the true source of purest joy. But it is only those who are capable of suffering deeply with the sufferings of others, that can truly rejoice when their sufferings are turned away. The more we are like Jesus, the more we have of his Spirit, the tenderer will be our hearts and the more deeply will our souls be moved by the sufferings of others.
When some dear friend has proved untrue; when some loved one has gone astray; when the death-angel has left a chair vacant at your hearth-stone and deep sorrow lies upon your soul, then it is that you feel nearer to Jesus. You feel ripe for heaven. The world has suddenly gone out, and you have cast your eyes upward. Do not try to keep back the tears; let them flow. They are pearls in angels' sight. It is the tears of the child that touches the heart of the parent, and cites him to give comfort to the little one. It is the tears of the Christian that touches the great loving heart of God and moves him to give that solace16 which only Heaven gives. David said in a time of deepest sorrow—his son was seeking his life—"It may be the Lord will look on my tears [margin], and that the Lord will requite17 me good." Hezekiah was doomed18 to die. The prophet told him to 'set his house in order, for he should die, and not live.' The dying man turned his face to the wall and prayed, "I beseech19 thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight"; and he "wept with a great weeping [margin]." This touched the heart of God, and he said, "I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold20, I will heal thee."
If the heart of God's saints were a deeper fountain of tears, more sick people would be healed in these days. Around are the sick and suffering, but alas21, how few tears! When saints have so deepened into God, cultivated such a tenderness of heart, and become so deeply compassionate22, that they will "water their couch with their tears all the night" at the sight of sick persons, they will get answers to their prayers. To such God will say, "Behold, I will heal him." If tears will not reach God, the case is hopeless. Esau sought for a place of repentance23 and sought it with tears, but could not find it. The mentioning of tears here implies that the addition of tears to earnest heart-seeking has influence with God. Jeremiah, in his lamentations for fallen Israel, said, "Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain24 of the daughter of my people!" He knew that if anything would avail with God, it would be tears therefore he wished that his eyes were a fountain of tears, so that God might be moved to save Israel.
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." There can be no harvest from seed sown unless the seed is watered. As you go out to sow seed in the Master's field, water them with your tears if you would have a joyful harvest. May God save his people from unfeelingness of heart! A soul with no tears is a soul with no flowers. There is no verdure where there is no water. Those who are not deep enough in God to shed tears over a lost and ruined world are not deep enough to shed tears of joy over a soul's salvation25. Out from the depth of his heart Jesus cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how oft would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her brood under her wing, but ye would not." When did you shed tears over lost souls? Do you ever have a Gethsemane? Is your pillow ever dampened by tears shed for a doomed world? Do you ever go out beneath the starry26 sky and with outstretched arms cry in the severe pains of travail27, "O lost souls, lost souls! how oft would I have gathered thee to Jesus, as a hen gathers her brood under her wing, but ye would not"? Only those who have deep travail of soul for the lost can fully28 rejoice when the lost are found.
One of the apostles said he served the "Lord with many tears." A heart from which flows no tears is not a heart that is wholly imbued29 by the Spirit of God. Tears of compassion for the suffering, tears of warning and entreaty30 for the lost, tears of joy for the saved, will flow through a perfectly31 holy heart as freely as water through a sieve32. Sunlight perforates the block of ice from the center outward; so the love of God perforates the heart to its depths and lets the tears of affection, pity, and sympathy flow out.
Do not try to escape suffering. Do not shut your heart against sorrow. It is the bruised33 flower that gives out the sweetest scent35. Open thy heart to God and let him bruise34 it, let sorrow flow in and break it, that sweetness may flow out. When the poet sang:
"I no trouble and no sorrow
See today, nor will I borrow
Gloomy visions for the morrow,"
he sang not of sorrow for souls lost in sin, nor of needful heaviness through manifold temptations, nor of sorrow awakened36 by the suffering of others, but of that sorrow which arises from the world through distrust and separation from God.
There is a sorrow which comes through Christ. It is as the refiner's fire, purifying the soul and binding37 it closer to God. Such sorrow detaches the heart from the world and from self, and hides it in God. It is impossible for the soul to approach any degree of nearness to Christ only through sorrow and suffering. In my own experience my heart once longed for deeper grace. My whole soul breathed out, "O Jesus! give me more meekness38." For a few days a heavy cloud of sorrow lay upon me; when it had passed away, I had an answer to my prayer.
I would have you beware of that unfeeling state in which one has no sorrow, and mistakingly attributes its absence to grace. Grace helps us bear sorrow, but does not harden our hearts against it. Sorrow brings us to a throne of grace for grace and grace brings us joy, so that we have joy in sorrow. No other joy is so sweet as this. It is the real and true joy of Christ.
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1
tribulation
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| n.苦难，灾难 | |
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tribulations
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| n.苦难( tribulation的名词复数 )；艰难；苦难的缘由；痛苦 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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calloused
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| adj.粗糙的，粗硬的，起老茧的v.（使）硬结，（使）起茧( callous的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）冷酷无情 | |
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err
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| vi.犯错误，出差错 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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requite
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| v.报酬，报答 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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compassionate
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| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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travail
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| n.阵痛；努力 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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bruise
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| n.青肿，挫伤；伤痕；vt.打青；挫伤 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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36
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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meekness
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| n.温顺，柔和 | |
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