3. An overwhelming sense of God's goodness —
[Nothing is more characteristic of true piety than this. Every day and hour we have reason to adore the divine good- ness. What patience does God exercise towards us under all our backslidings ! What readiness does he manifest to return to our souls the very instant we return to him, yea, often reveal- ing himself to us, and shedding abroad his love in our hearts, when we had no reason to expect any thing but some heavy token of his displeasure ! The psalmist, impressed with such views of God, exclaims, " O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men11!" But the most striking example of this frame of mind is afforded us by the poor woman, who, to express her love and gratitude, kissed the feet of her Saviour, and washed them with floods of tears }. Would to God that such were the state of our minds, and that we might ever be found, as to our souls at least, in that posture !]
Omitting many other grounds of weeping, we pro- ceed to inquire,
II. What encouragement we have to weep?
To those who sow their corn, there is but one harvest : but to those who sow in tears there are two :
1. We shall reap in this world —
[God will not despise the broken and contrite heartk : on the contrary, " he will hear the voice of our weeping : " tears, when flowing from a contrite soul, have an eloquence which he cannot resist. He will speak peace to the soul : he will blot out its transgressions as a morninsr cloud l. He will cause the light of his countenance to shine upon it; and will give unto it a spirit of adoption, whereby it shall cry with confidence, Abba, Father m ! And will not such a harvest recompense a hundred years of weeping ? Look but at the state of the Pro- digal, and see him, after his short seed-time of weeping, wel- comed to his father's house, and feasting with him on the fatted calf; was he not well repaid? had he any reason to regret his tears of penitence ? Thus then shall it be with us in this world, provided we be content to sow in tears : " Weeping may endure for a night, but joy shall come in the morning n."]
2. We shall reap also in the world to come —
[All that the penitent soul enjoys in this world is but an earnest of what it shall hereafter possess. There is " a full
11 Ps. xxxi. 19. « Luke vii. 38. k Ps. li. 17.
I Luke vii. 47, 48, f>0. 1 John i. 9. m Jer. xxxi. 9, 20.
II Ps. xxx. 5.