And when at eve they homeward go Sometimes with weary steps and slow, But laden with the sweet new wine. And purple clusters of the vine. And precious sheaves of golden grain To recompense their toil and pain ; But that the Lord doth choose for me, I fain within their ranks would be.
Yet though I can but hope and wait,
I am not sad or desolate.
For every day with bounty free
The Master bringeth gifts to me.
From out His life there seems to shine
A wondrous glory into mine.
My life ! how dark and how unclean,
How poor and fruitless has it been.
1 J. Stralian, The Marichale (1913), 62.
36 WAITING COURAGEOUSLY
But sure the seed He planted theiu That should have grown so tall and fair Must now, at last, begin to spring Beneath such heavenly nourishing.
And if, perchance, I fail to see The thought of God concerning me, I leave in peace my fallow field Till love divine shall make it yield. And when at last the corn and wine Of all His harvests shall be mine, Then shall I know, or soon, or late, They also serve who stand and wait.
The Transience of Sorrow.
Literature.
Crosthwail, E. Q. S., Heavenward Steps, 78.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, i. 17.
Hutton (R. E.), The Grown of Christ, i. 547.
Ingram (A. F. W.), The Secrets of Strength, 199.
Maclaren (A,), llie Wearied Christ, 241.
Raleigh (A,), T]ie Way to the City, 79.
Rawnsley (R. D. B.), Sermons Preached in Country Churches, i. 118;
iii. 120. Spurgeon (C. H.), Morning by Morniwj, 134. Wilkinson (J. B.), Mission Sermons, ii. 255. Winterbotham (R.), Sermons, 214. Christian World Pulpit, xxxiii. 233 (H. P. Liddon) ; xxxv. 314
(R. B. Brindley). Homiletic Review, xlix. 222 (F. Smith). Treasury (New York), xxi. 951 (G. B. F. Hallock).
38
The Transience of Sorrow.
His anger is but for a moment;
In his favour is life :
Weeping may tarry for the night,
But joy Cometh in the morning.— Ps. xxx. 5.
There is an obvious antithesis in the first part of the text, between " his anger " and " his favour." Probably there is a similar antithesis between " a moment " and " life." For although the word rendered " life " does not usually mean a lifetime, it may have that signification, and the evident intention of contrast seems to require it here. So, then, the meaning of the first part of the text is, " the anger lasts for a moment ; the favour lasts for a lifetime." The perpetuity of the one and the brevity of the other are the Psalmist's thought. Then, if we pass to the second part of the text, we observe that there is a double antithesis there also. " Weeping " is set over against " joy " ; the " night " against the " morning." And the first of these two contrasts is the more striking if we observe that the word "joy" means, literally, "a joyful shout," so that the voice which was lifted in weeping is con- ceived of as now being heard in exultant praise. Then, still further, the expression "may endure" literally means "come to lodge." So that Weeping and Joy are personified. Two guests come — one, dark-robed and approaching at the fitting season for such — " the night " ; the other bright, coming with all things fresh and sunny, in the dewy morn. The guest of the night is Weeping ; the guest that takes its place in the morning is Gladness.
Thus the two clauses of the text suggest substantially the same thought, and that is the persistence of joy and the transitori- ness of sorrow. The one speaks of the succession of emotions in the man; the other, of the successive aspects of the Divine dealings which occasion these. The whole is a leaf out of the Psalmist's own experience. The psalm commemorates his
40 THE TRANSIENCE OF SORROW
deliverance from some affliction, probably a sickness. That is long gone past ; and the tears that it caused have long since dried up. But this shout of joy of his has lasted all these centuries, and is like to be immortal.
^ It was Paget himself who had taught us, years before, through his best-known volume. The Spirit of Discipline, to con- sider carefully the meanings and contrasts of accidie, and of tristitia, and of " the sorrow of the world." I asked him once — it was on a walk over the Col de Checouri at Courmayeur — to expand for me afresh his understanding of the phrase he used to quote from Spinoza: Tristitia est hominis transitio a majore ad minorem perfectionem. He answered gravely and almost in a whisper, " I can never understand Spinoza, but I am quite certain he was right there." ^
I.
Seasons of Sorrow.
1. Sorrow comes in the night. It comes in the night of worldly reverses. These may not be the worst misfortunes in life, but only those who experience them know their poignancy. It is no small thing to have the savings of a lifetime swept away. Perhaps the storm came, the flood fell, the fire burned, a friend proved false, the crash of plans arrived, a blunder in judgment happened — and the accumulation of years has gone. It repre- sented our toil and tears and thought and love. But it perished in an hour. It promised us happiness and independence in old age. But the promise failed. Tears do not turn dust to diamonds. Riches on wings fly faster from us than to us. To cry over fortune lost is no wiser than for the miller to weep over water that has flowed past.