April 25

 

 

 

"And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre." (Matt. 27:61)

How strangely stupid is grief. It neither learns nor knows nor wishes to learn or know. When the sor rowing sisters sat over against the door of God's sepulchre, did they see the two thousand years that have passed triumphing away? Did they see any thing but this: "Our Christ is gone!"

Your Christ and my Christ came from their loss; Myriad¹ mourning hearts have had resurrection in the midst of their grief; and yet the sorrowing watchers looked at the seed-form of this result, and saw nothing. What they regarded as the end of life was the very preparation for coronation; for Christ was silent that He might live again in tenfold power.

They saw it not. They mourned, they wept, and went away, and came again, driven by their hearts to the sepulchre. Still it was a sepulchre, unprophetic, voiceless, lusterless.

So with us. Every man sits over against the sepulchre in his garden, in the first instance, and says, "This woe² is irremediable. I see no benefit in it. I will take no comfort in it." And yet, right in our deepest and worst mishaps³, often, our Christ is lying, waiting for resurrection.

Where our death seems to be, there our Saviour⁴ is. Where the end of hope is, there is the brightest beginning of fruition. Where the darkness is thickest, there the bright beaming light that never is set is about to emerge. When the whole experience is consummated⁵, then we find that a garden is not disfigured by a sepulchre. Our joys are made better if there be sorrow in the midst of them. And our sorrows are made bright by the joys that God has planted around about them. The flowers may not be pleasing to us, they may not be such as we are fond of plucking, but they are heart-flowers, love, hope, faith, joy, peace--these are flowers which are planted around about every grave that is sunk in the Christian⁶ heart.

"'Twas by a path of sorrows drear

Christ entered into rest;

And shall I look for roses here,

Or think that earth is blessed?

Heaven's whitest lilies blow

From earth's sharp crown of woe.

Who here his cross can meekly⁷ bear,

Shall wear the kingly purple there."

　 　 四月二十五日

“应当一无挂虑”（腓四：6）

　　盲目的悲哀，其实是无比的愚蠢。在这种情绪之中，既不思考，也不了解，更不想思考，亦不愿去了解。当两位马利亚坐在主的墓门前伤心哀悼之时，她们可曾知道，此后千万年的岁月，已在胜利中了。她们在当时心中只知道：“我们的主不见了”。

　　你们的基督在她们的失望中回来；无数哀恸的心灵，在她们的悲悼中复活；然而忧闷哀悼地在墓旁守望的人，眼前虽已摆着未来结果的端倪，却没有看见。她们所认为的生命末日，殊不知正是加冕大典的筹备过程；基督之所以静默安息，是为了在再醒时能增加十倍的力量。

　　她们不知道这一点。她们的悲悼，哭泣，离去，然后又受内心的驱策，回到墓地。但仍只见一个没有预兆，没有声音，没有光彩的坟墓。

　　我们也是如此，最初坐在自己的园子里对着坟墓说：“此一丧失无可挽回，我看已无益处，我将从此不能得到慰籍”。然而往往就在我们最失丧的时候，基督正在那里准备复活。

　　我们认为死亡的地方，有我们的救世主在那里。希望似乎终了，却是丰富收获的开始。黑暗最浓重的时候，却是光明即将涌现了。当整个过程的变演就绪之后，我们会发现坟墓并未破坏花园的美观。含有悲哀的欢乐，胜于一般的欢乐。我们的悲哀，为神所布置的乐园所围绕，就变得光明。爱，信，希望，欢乐与和平，这些心灵之花，也许不为常人所欣赏，也不是她们的花，但这些心灵之花，都种植在基督徒内心深处的每一个坟墓周围。

经过了哀恸阴暗的道路，

基督进入了他的安息之处；

我在这里能否找到玫瑰花，

作为世界纳福的证据！

天上最洁白的水仙，

生自人间的苦痛熬煎，

谁能卑微地背起十字架，

谁就披上君王的紫袍翩翩。

1 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

2 woe   

n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌

参考例句：

• Our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe.我们两国人民是患难与共的兄弟。
• A man is well or woe as he thinks himself so.自认祸是祸，自认福是福。

3 mishaps   

n.轻微的事故，小的意外( mishap的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a series of mishaps 一连串的倒霉事
• In spite of one or two minor mishaps everything was going swimmingly. 尽管遇到了一两件小小的不幸，一切都进行得很顺利。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 saviour   

n.拯救者，救星

参考例句：

• I saw myself as the saviour of my country.我幻想自己为国家的救星。
• The people clearly saw her as their saviour.人们显然把她看成了救星。

5 consummated   

v.使结束( consummate的过去式和过去分词 )；使完美；完婚；（婚礼后的）圆房

参考例句：

• The marriage lasted only a week and was never consummated. 那段婚姻仅维持了一星期，期间从未同房。
• We consummated an agreement after a year of negotiation. 经过一年的谈判，我们达成了协议。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 meekly   

adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地

参考例句：

• He stood aside meekly when the new policy was proposed. 当有人提出新政策时，他唯唯诺诺地站 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He meekly accepted the rebuke. 他顺从地接受了批评。 来自《简明英汉词典》