xxv. 8. _And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all
faces._
The vision presented is that of a sorrowless world; a vision which
has haunted the imagination of men in every age. The Bible declares
that that which has been merely a bright but disappearing dream shall
be a glorious fact.
+I. Look at sorrow as a fact.+ How early we become acquainted with
it. How our experience of it increases with every year of life. How
numerous are its sources. How inevitable it is (H. E. I., 47-50). But
the profoundest, heaviest, most oppressive, and most enduring sorrow
of which we are capable is the sorrow of the soul which is caused by
consciousness of guilt. Unlike all other sorrows, in the thought of
death it finds no relief; by that thought it is unspeakably
aggravated (H. E. I., 1334-1341; P. D., 1664, 1668).
+II. Proceed to look at God removing sorrow.+ "The Lord God will wipe
away tears from off all faces." How great the enterprise! Yet how
sufficient, though unexpected and startling, is the agency He
employs: on this mission of mercy He has sent His own Son. God as His
manner is, works from within outwards; He not only wipes off all
tears, He removes their cause. That cause is sin. But how does He
destroy sin in the human soul? 1. By revealing it, by showing its
essential hideousness--one of the revelations of the cross of Christ.
It is not until we perceive the costliness of the atonement of sin,
that we begin to suspect its terribleness and hatefulness. 2. By
showing that sin can be conquered. This is the glorious message and
proclamation of the life of the Man Christ Jesus. 3. By furnishing a
motive that shall stimulate us to the conflict with sin which will
end in victory. That motive is found in the love for Christ which
springs up in the soul when we view Him dying on the cross in our
stead. 4. In the same marvellous spectacle we see that which alone
can pacify conscience, and which does pacify it. Believing, our fears
and our sorrows flee away; our mourning is turned into joy. The
supreme need of the soul is met in reconciliation with God. A
sorrowless life is begun. But that is not all. Having destroyed--_in_
destroying sin in the soul, God implants righteousness (chap.
xxxii. 17). He creates as well as destroys. He introduces into our
thoughts, words, actions, a Divine order, and therefore a Divine
beauty and blessedness. All sorrow springs from infractions of this
order; this is seen in national, social, individual life. In
proportion as it is restored, tears are wiped away. The great Agent
by whom this work is accomplished is His own Spirit; but He works by
means, and the chief instruments He employs are those who, in various
ways, are promoting the knowledge and practice of the will of God in
the world. In this work we may share; this possibility is the glory
of our life. By the progress of Christian truth, how many tears have
been already wiped away! In spite of every obstacle, the glorious
work shall proceed, with ever-accelerating triumphs. There is a
better day dawning for our race (H. E. I., 3421-3423). Nothing can
bring it in but the Gospel. All other agencies--commerce, education,
literature, art, legislation--have been tried and have failed. He who
loves humanity will consecrate himself to the furtherance of the
Gospel; and he who does so shall share in that joy of redeeming the
world from sin and sorrow by the hope of which Christ was sustained
amid the sufferings He endured for this great end.--_Thomas Neave._