If sorrow is a necessary accompaniment of the attempt to right things in oneself, it will also accompany the attempt to right things in the world. It was Christ's experience, and it will be the experience of His followers (Jn 15-" etc.) as they share His Mork. The traditional saying of Christ that ' he who is near me is near the fire ' (Orig. Horn, in Jer. xx. 3) is at least authentic in spirit. The disciples must bear the cross He bears (.MkS^-*), drink His cup, and be baptized with His baptism (Mk 1(F), carry His yoke (Mt ll-«). The sword must pierce the Virgin's heart because of her nearness to Him (Lk 2^^) ; even the Innocents sufier unconsciously on account of their connexion with Him (Mt 2""'). The via dolorosa is the only road to union with Him.f
In Jn 16 the sorrow of the disciples is contrasted with the transient joy of the world. The world rejoices (16'-") ' as having been freed from one who was a dangerous innovator as well as a condemner of its ways ' ( Westcott, ad loc. ) ; i.e. it is satisfied to have no Christ, even to have removed Him, and is
* See the remarkable passage in Ro 822, where Nature is represented as sharing in the imperfection and hopes of man. Cf. Sanday-lieadlam, ad loc.
i It need hardly be added that this thought dominates the rest of the NT (e.g. Ph 310, Col l'^", 1 P 4i3).
content with things as they are. The sorrow of the disciples is connected with the departure of Christ. The primary reference is to the immediate crisis, but in all ages His disciples will have sorrcjw in all that hinders their full vision of Him, the complete establishment of His Kingdom, and His return in glory. Though He has overcome the world, they must have tribulation in it, till the victory won ideally is realized in fact (16^). Sorrow cannot be completely turned into joy till what is, is identical with what should be, till He returns again and we see Him as He is (1 Jn 3-). As we said before, we find no abstract discussion of the nature and meaning of sorrow. The solution of the problem is found in the experience of Christ, which is the experience of the Christian.* Sorrow is bound up with every attempt to combat sin in the self and in the world. It is the reaction against sin, and those who feel this most keenly must drink most deeply of the cuj). The consola- tion lies in the fact that the discij^le is sharing the lot of His master here, and will share His joy hereafter (Mt 19'^^ Ro 8'^ 2 Ti 2").
5. Sorrow and happiness. — It would be an inadequate treatment of the teaching of Christ to conceive of sorrow merely as the condition of future happiness. Christianity is a religion of present happiness. An exultant joy is the note of the songs which hailed Christ's birth. Joy is a present fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5^^) ; the Kingdom of God is now joy and peace (Ro 14^'^). The promises of the New Heaven and the New Earth are not purely eschatological ; they belong, ideally at least, to our life now. One of the characteristic paradoxes of Christianity is that its sorrow and happiness co- exist. Again we turn first to the experience of Christ. He 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 sufi'ering, 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 e.xaggerated. And again the disciple shares the experience of His master. Neither Christ nor the true Christian can for a moment wish, like a Job or a Jeremiah, that he had never been born. The Beatitudes express His own humanly discovered secret of happiness ; He has Himself known the blessedness of mourning, though never, of course, over His own sin, and He imparts the secret to His follower. And though the promises of Jn 16 can be completely realized only when the Christian departs to be with Christ (Ph F^), yet even now His joy is in him and is fulfilled (Jn 15'^) ; even now, in prayer and in com- munion with Him, he knows the joy which no man can take from him (Jn iQ^o-^'^--*). ' Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ' (2 Co 6'"), is the paradox of the gospel, and each side of the paradox is needed to counteract an unbalanced view of life. On the one hand, sorrow is no figment of the imagination, to be thought away. It is a fact of life, and a neces- sary fact, necessary to the perfection of the sinless One, much more to our own ; the condition of all progi'ess and of all true work for God. This is the truth ignored by the ' sky-blue ' optimism, which strives to live ever in the sunshine and blinds itself to sin.t On the other hand, sorrow is not the last word of life. The world is a Kda-fios, a creation of order and beauty. We find in Christ's teaching