Tf John Richard Green, before he began to write his history of England, was a curate in the East End of London, and he bore the burden of the East End upon his heart. He tells in one of his letters how he tried to reclaim some of the fallen, and he says that the appalling thing to him was this — to find that they were where they were simply because of their indifferent attitude. He said to them it was such a little thing to step down there, and now he could not get them to realize that it was a big thing to step from down there up here into the life of purity. It was all indifference that was responsible for that. The sorrows of humanity and its sins broke the heart of One whose cry is to the end of time, " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? " If I could, I would take every one of you where you could see it, the Face that was marred more than any man's and the form more than the sons of men. If you asked me why, I should say, " The consequences of your guilt, the curse of your sin, rested upon Him, the innocent for the guilty, that He might wake your soul and bring you to God, and help you to save the world." Is it nothing to you, nothing ? Is that your final answer ? Have you nothing more to say than that Jesus Christ and His Passion are nothing to you ? " Oh, no," you say ; " No, we do not say that ; we do feel something, and think something." What is your practical answer ? That is the only thing that matters. What is your practical
174 THE PERFECTION OF SORROW
answer to Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Is it nothing, or rather does it pledge you once again to give your youth, your powers, and all you have, in glorious self-abandonment for the service of God, and for the good of humanity ? 1
III.
1. To Jesus the suffering He was called on to endure was not aimless, and gave Him no reason to doubt the goodness and mercy of His Father. He saw, as we often do not and cannot, behind the veil. He realized that there was a purpose in it all, and the joy that was set before Him became as a blessed anodyne that helped Him to endure the shame. His lowly service and suffering were such integral parts of the work He had come into the world to do that He took them quietly and almost as a matter of course. And His example teaches us at least this, that we may look for the silver lining to the clouds above our heads. In much of what we are called to endure there is a gracious and fruitful discipline, and happy are they who can see it and whose faith can help them to be still and open not their mouths. There is not one who sorrows now, no matter what his grief and gloom, who cannot find his pain met, and overwhelmed, and swallowed up in the sea of eternal suffering love that presents itself in Jesus Christ. The followers of Jesus Christ take the problem of sorrow for granted. It is there before them. But in Christ they find its practical solution. Behold the Man of Sorrows, the One who is acquainted with grief. His experience gives us the power by which we accept sorrow. If in an evil world He knew sorrow as He did, by the same token He says to us, " Ye now therefore have sorrow." And we are bidden accordingly to look " unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." Through His sorrow we may surely see something of the purpose of sorrow, as a privilege peculiar to man. It lifts him forward and upward to a destiny not vouchsafed to 1 C. Silvester Home.
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nature below him. If man is to rise in the struggle which must be and is against sin in an imperfect world, sorrow is a necessary condition and a purifying element.
*[f One of the characteristic paradoxes of Christianity is that its sorrow and happiness co-exist. Christ is the Man of Sorrows, yet we cannot think of Him for a moment as an unhappy man. He rather gives us the picture of serene and unclouded happiness. Beneath not merely the outward suffering, but the profound sorrow of heart, there is deeper still a continual joy, derived from the realized presence of His Father and the consciousness that He is doing His work. Unless this is remembered, the idea of the Man of Sorrows is sentimentalized and exaggerated.1
2. The sorrow of Christ has been a blessedly fruitful sorrow. All sorrow yields fruit according to its kind ; but it is not possible to measure the fruitfulness of the atoning death of the Redeemer. His sorrow on earth was the path to His eternal reward in heaven ; and the depth of His sufferings is the measure of the height of His mediatorial exaltation. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." Because He was the Man of Sorrows He is now the King of Glory. And who can tell how fruitful of blessing the Eedeemer's sorrow has been to His people ? Jesus wept that He might one day wipe away all tears from the eyes of millions. He sorrowed that multitudes might rejoice. He shed His blood that many a bleeding heart might be healed. He tasted death that a new life might be breathed into the souls of men. He was made " perfect through sufferings " that He might " bring many sons unto glory." Every believer can testify of the Redeemer, as Bunyan's pilgrim did : " He hath given me joy by His sorrow, and life by His death." Christ's cross is His throne, and it is by His death that He has ruled the ages. Yet we must not understand this as if His power was only or mostly shown in binding men, by gratitude for the salvation He won them, to own Him for their King. His power has been even more conspicuously proved in making His fashion of service the most fruitful and the most honoured among men. If men have ceased to turn from sickness with aversion or from weakness with contempt ; if they have learned to see in all pain some law of God, and in vicarious