^ J«mes Martineau, Endeavours after tlie Christian Life, 138.
PSALM cxxii. I 79
if he desires on general grounds to do so, but these are paltry motives for cutting oneself off from communion with believers. It is clear that Christ Himself thought many of the orthodox practices of the exponents of the popular religion wrong, but He did not for that reason abjure attendance upon accustomed rites ; and it is far more important to show sympathy with an idea, even if one does not agree with all the details, than to seem, by pro- testing against erroneous detail, to be out of sympathy with the idea. The mistake is when a man drifts into thinking of cere- monial worship as a practice specially and uniquely dear to God. There are some who have a quickened sense of fellowship and unity, when prayers and aspirations are uttered in concert ; but the error is to desire merely the bodily presence of one's fellow- creatures for such a purpose, rather than their mental and spiritual acquiescence. The result of such a desire is that it is often taught, or at all events believed, that there is a kind of merit in the attendance at public worship. The only merit of it lies in the case of those who sacrifice a personal disinclination to the desire to testify sympathy for the religious life. It is no more meritorious for those who personally enjoy it, than it is for a lover of pictures to go to a picture-gallery, for thus the hunger of the spirit is satisfied.^
' A. C. Benson, The Silent Isle, 63.
Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy.
PS. CXIX.-SONG OF SOL. — 6
Literature.
Banks (L. A.), David and His Friends, 224.
Davies (T.), Sermons and Homiletical Exijositions, ii. 455.
Devenish (E. I.), LiTce Afi^les of Gold, 47.
Hare (J. C), Parish Sermons, i. 347.
Henderson (A.), Sermons, 190.
MacArthur (R. S.), The Calvary Pulpit, 103.
Mackennal (A.), Christ's Healing Touch, 30.
Macleod (A.), A Man's Gift, 117.
Milne (W.), The Precious Things of God, 45.
Skrine (J. H.), The Mountain Mother, 126.
Sowter (G. A.), Sowing and Reaping, 1.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xv. (1869), No. 867.
Taylor (W. M.), The Boy Jesus, 277.
Thomas (J.), Sermons (Myrtle Street Pulpit), ii. 263.
Voysey (C), Sermons, xxxii. (1909), No. 37.
Christian Treasury, xxx. (1874) 601 (P. Fairbairn).
Christian World Pulpit, vi. 206 (A. C. Price) ; xix. 186 (A. Scott) ; Ix.
241 (J. Watson). Sunday Magazine, 1888, pp. 613, 696 (M. G. Pearse).
&i
Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy.
Though he goeth on his way weeping, bearing forth the seed ; He shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
Ps. cxxvi. 6.
This is a song of grateful remembrance celebrating the return of the Jews from exile. But though it begins, as so many of the psalms do, with a local reference, it ends with a general applica- tion to universal human life. The end of the Captivity came unexpectedly ; the singer declares that it was li^e a dream to them ; they could hardly believe at first that it was true. But when they were sure that they were awake, and that the long exile was really over, that they were going home again to rebuild the Temple, and the city of their pride and love, their mouths were filled with laughter and their voices burst forth into singing. Gratitude towards God swelled their hearts ; they gave God all the glory; they bore testimony before the heathen that it was God who had done these great things for them. Studying this signal illustration of the sweetness of victory after defeat, of the blessedness of home after exile, of the glory of the harvest after the long seedtime and waiting, the singer bursts forth into inspired poetry, drawing from this illustration a beautiful truth applic- able to human life in general, and of special spiritual signifi- cance to those who seek to bless and uplift human hearts. "They that sow in tears," he sings with confidence, "shall reap in joy. Though he goeth on his way weeping, bearing forth the seed; he shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him."
^ Some one has said that the finest example of the use in English literature of a quotation from the Bible is the refer- ence to this text in Thackeray's Esmond. Entering Winchester Cathedral on his return from the wars, Harry Esmond sees again the widowed Lady Castlewood, who in his youth had been to him more than sister and mother, and whom he now loves as a woman.
83
84 SOWING IN TEARS, REAPING IN JOY
The period of their separation is ended. " I knew," she says to him at the close of the service, " that you would come back. And to-day, Henry, in the anthem, when they sang it, ' When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream,' I thought, yes, like them that dream — them that dream. And then it went, ' They that sow in tears shall reap in joy ; and he that goeth forth and weepeth, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring his sheaves with him ' ; I looked up from the book, and saw you. I was not surprised when I saw you. I knew you would come, my dear, and saw the gold sunshine round your head. . . . But now — now you are come again, bringing your sheaves with you, my dear." She burst into a wild flood of weeping as she spoke ; she laughed and sobbed on the young man's heart, crying out wildly, " Bringing your sheaves with you — your sheaves with you ! " ^