Thus we see all kinds of joy brought within the circle of this morning. It is a morning of joy, because it is the morning introduced by Him, who said, cc These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full " (John xv. 11) ; by Him " in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psa. xvi. 11.) But let us mark the different kinds of joy and the different figures denoting it.
There is the joy of deliverance from overwhelming danger. This was the joy of the Jews when their adversary perished, i 2
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and Mordecai was exalted ; " The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour, .... the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day.5' (Esther viii. 16.) Such shall be the church's joy in the morning of her great deliverance. There is the joy of escape from captivity and return from exile, such as made Israel feel " as men that dream." Such shall be the church's joy when her long captivity is done. (i Then shall her mouth be filled with laughter, and her tongue with singing ; having sowed in tears she reaps in joy." (Psa. cxxvi. 2.) There is the joy of harvest (Isa. ix. 3) ; and such shall be the church's joy. There is the mother's joy when her pangs are over, and the child is born into the world. (John xvi. 20.) With such joy shall we rejoice, and our joy no man taketh from us. The joy in reserve for us is manifold and large ; it will abide and satisfy ; it is the joy of the morning ; — a long glad day before us ; no evening with its lengthening shadows,
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no night with its chills and darkness. " There shall be no night there, and they need no candle neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. xxii. 5.)
The prospect of this morning — this " morning of joy " — nerves and cheers u-s under all our tribulation. Were this morn- ing an uncertainty, how dark would the night seem ! how difficult for us to fight against faintness and despair ! But the thought of morning invigorates and braces us. We can set our faces to the storm, for behind it lies the calm. We can bear the parting, for the meeting is not distant. We can afford to weep, for the tear shall soon be wiped away. We can watch the tedious sick bed, for soon " the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." We can look quietly into the grave of buried love and cherished hope, for resurrection shines be- yond it. Things may be against us here, i 3
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but they are for us hereafter. The here is but an hour ; the hereafter is a whole eternity.
But for the world — the heedless, plea- sure-chasing world, they have no such brightenings for their dark hours of sor- row. No morning comes to them. Their sun sets, but rises not again: their life goes down in darkness, without a hope. It is night — night infinite and endless, to them ; " the blackness of darkness for ever!" No healing of their wounds, no wiping away of their tears, no binding up of their broken hearts ! They reject the in- finite sacrifice, they sport away their day of salvation, and their history winds up in judgment and the second death. " If they speak not according to this word" (says the prophet,) " there is no morning for them" (Isa. viii. 20, margin.) This word, " which by the gospel is preached unto them," (1 Peter i. 25,) they slight or scorn, and vengeance overtakes them for rejec-
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tion ! " Therefore/' says the same prophet, "' shall evil come upon you ; thou shalt not know its morning" (Isa. xlvii. 11, margin.) An evil without a deliverance, a night without a morning, is their portion !
Sad closing of a life-time's weariness! Joy they have never known, though its full cup has often been handed to them by God, and they pressed to drink it ! For what is each message, each summons, each warning, but God saying to them, " Come share my love, come taste my joy ! " Sor- row they have known, for how could they miss knowing it in such a world ! Heavy burdens, keen griefs, sharp stings, bitter memories, hard misgivings, intolerable forebodings, dark self-questionings, " What am I, or what shall I be?" all these, crowding in upon a soul that has no God, pouring into a heart that has no outlet for its sorrows in the bosom of a Saviour, are enough to dry up life's springs even when
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deepest * Yet all these are but the be- ginning of sorrows ! There is a fuller cup yet to be given to them to drink — eternal wormwood! Then the heart would fain break, but cannot. . For the sorrow is as eternal as it is infinite. They shall seek for death, but shall not be able to find it ; for the second death is the death that never dies.