'Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the
world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall
be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because
her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she
remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the
world. And ye now, therefore, have sorrow; but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from
you.'-JOHN xvi. 20-22.
These words, to which we have come in the ordinary course of our
exposition, make an appropriate text for Easter Sunday. For their one
theme is the joy which began upon that day, and was continued in
increasing measure as the possession of Christ's servants after
Pentecost. Our Lord promises that the momentary sadness and pain shall
be turned into a swift and continual joy. He pledges His word for that,
and bids us believe it on His bare word. He illustrates it by that
tender and beautiful image which, in the pains and bliss of motherhood,
finds an analogy for the pains and bliss of the disciples, inasmuch as,
in both cases, pain leads directly to blessedness in which it is
forgotten. And He crowns His great promises by explaining to us what is
the deepest foundation of our truest gladness, 'I will see you again,'
and by declaring that such a joy is independent of all foes and all
externals, 'and your joy no man taketh from you.'
There are, then, two or three aspects of the Christian life as a glad
life which are set before us in these words, and to which I ask your
attention.