In my text, all that this Joy-bringer and Transmuter of grief into its
opposite is represented as doing is on the man who feels the sorrow.
And although, as I have said, the text, in its original position, is
simply a deduction from the previous great prophecy which did point to
a change of circumstances, and although Jesus does bring the 'joy of
salvation' by a great change in a man's relations, yet in regard to the
ordinary sorrows of life, He affects these not so much by an operation
upon our circumstances as by an operation upon ourselves, and
transforms sorrow and brings gladness, because He transforms the man
who endures it. The landscape remains the same, the difference is in
the colour of the glass through which we look at it. Instead of having
it presented through some black and smoked medium, we see it through
what the painter calls a 'Claude Lorraine' glass, tinged golden, and
which throws its own lovely light upon all that it shows us. It is
possible--the eye that looks being purged and cleansed, so as to see
more clearly-that the facts remaining identical, their whole aspect and
bearing may be altered, and that which was felt, and rightly felt, to
be painful and provocative of sadness and gloom, may change its
character and beget a solemn joy. It would be but a small thing to
transform the conditions; it is far better and higher to transform us.
We all need, and some of us, I have no doubt, do especially need, to
remember that the Lord who brings this sudden transformation for us,
does so by His operation within us, and, therefore, to that operation
we should willingly yield ourselves.
How does He do this? One answer to that question is--by giving to the
man with ashes on his head and gloom wrapped about his spirit, sources
of joy, if he will use them, altogether independent of external
circumstances.' Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, and there be no
fruit in the vine ... yet will I rejoice in the Lord.' And every
Christian man, especially when days are dark and clouds are gathering,
has it open to him, and is bound to use the possibility, to turn away
his mind from the external occasions of sadness, and fix it on the
changeless reason for deep and unchanging joy--the sweet presence, the
strong love, the sustaining hand, the infinite wisdom, of his Father
God.
Brethren, "the paradox of the Christian life" is, 'as sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing.' Christ calls for no hypocritical insensibility to
'the ills that flesh is heir to.' He has sanctioned by His example the
tears that flow when death hurts loving hearts. He commanded the women
of Jerusalem to 'weep for themselves and for their children.' He means
that we should feel the full bitterness and pain of sorrows which will
not be medicinal unless they are bitter, and will not be curative
unless they cut deep. But He also means that whilst thus we suffer as
men, in the depths of our own hearts we should, at the same time, be
turning away from the sufferings and their cause, and fixing our
hearts, quiet even then amidst the distractions, upon God Himself. Ah!
it is hard to do, and because we do not do it, the promise that He will
turn the sorrow into joy often seems to be a vain word for us.
It is not ours to rejoice as the world does, nor is it ours to sorrow
as those who have no hope, or as those who have no God with them. But
the two opposite emotions may, to a large extent, be harmonised and
co-existent in a Christian heart, and, since they can be, they should
be. The Christian in sorrow should be as an island set in some stormy
sea, with wild waves breaking against its black, rocky coast, and the
wind howling around it, but in the centre of it there is a deep and
shady dell 'that heareth not the loud winds when they call,' and where
not a leaf is moved by the tempest. In a like depth of calm and central
tranquillity it is possible for us to live, even while the storm
hurtles its loudest on the outermost coasts of our being; 'as
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,' because the Joy-bringer has opened
for us sources of gladness independent of externals.
And then there is another way by which, for us, if we will use our
privileges, the sorrows of life may be transmuted, because we,
contemplating them, have come to a changed understanding of their
meaning. That is, after all, the secret charm to be commended to us at
all times, but to be commended to us most when our hearts are heavy and
the days are dark around us. We shall never understand life if we class
its diverse events simply under the two opposite categories of
good--evil; prosperity--adversity; gains--losses; fulfilled
expectations--disappointed hopes, Put them all together under one
class--discipline and education; means for growth; means for
Christlikeness. When we have found out, what it takes a long while for
us to learn, that the lancet and the bandage are for the same purpose,
and that opposite weathers conspire to the same end, that of the
harvest, the sting is out of the sorrow, the poison is wiped off the
arrow. We can have, if not a solemn joy, at least a patient
acquiescence, in the diversities of operation, when we learn that the
same hand is working in all for the same end, and that all that
contributes to that end is good.
Here we may suggest a third way by which a transformation wrought upon
ourselves transforms the aspect of our sorrows, and that is, that
possessing independent sources of joy, and having come to learn the
educational aspect of all adversity, we hereby are brought by Jesus
Christ Himself to the position of submission. And that is the most
potent talisman to transform mourning into praise. An accepted grief is
a conquered grief; a conquered grief will very soon be a comforted
grief; and a comforted grief is a joy. By all these means Jesus Christ,
here and now, is transmuting the lead and iron of our griefs into the
gold of a not ignoble nor transient gladness.
And may I say one last word? My text suggests not only these two points
to which I have already referred--viz. that Jesus Christ is the
Joy-bringer because He is the Emancipator, and that He transforms
sorrow by transforming the mourner--but, lastly, that