March 9

This too is the surest way to succeed. God sees that while we are in a high fever of desire he cannot safely indulge us; but he is never unwilling to gratify us when he can do it without injury—For he "hath pleasure in the prosperity of his people."

MARCH 9.—"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."—Revelation 21:4.

UNLESS we knew something of the world of glory, we could not desire it or prepare for it. Yet what we know is comparatively little: and it is rather negative than positive. In our present state, our liveliest feeling of good is the absence of evil; and of pleasure is the cessation of pain. And therefore, conformably to an experience well understood by every child of Adam, the happiness of heaven is held forth to our hopes as an exemption from every kind and degree of sorrow—and "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Tears and sorrows do not always go together. Some people have a plenitude of tears, whose emotions are by no means deep and durable. Others can seldom weep; yet they feel, and feel the more, because their grief wants utterance. Persons in great anguish are commonly beyond weeping. This is seen in criminals preceding their execution.

When it is said, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," it is taken for granted, that the eyes of his people are no strangers to them now. Grace does not exclude the sensibilities of our nature, but increases as well as refines them. We read of "them that mourn in Zion." And it is said, "they shall come with weeping." Religion costs a Christian a thousand tears in addition to those which he inherits as a man—for "man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards."

Of the tears they so frequently shed, we may remark in particular, five sources. Those which arise from secular afflictions—such as difficulties, perplexities, and failures in business; and changes, reductions, and privations in outward circumstances. Those which arise from social trials—whether sympathy in sorrow, defections in friendship, or relative bereavements. Those which arise from bodily pains, indispositions, and decays. Those which flow from moral imperfections, and which are the most distressing to a pious mind. And those which spring from the sins of others; for rivers of tears run down their eyes, because men keep not God's law.

But of whatever kind their tears may be, the promise insures the removal of them. The removal has three characters. It is divine—"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." He alone can do it. But he is all-sufficient, and the God of all comfort. Even here, "when he giveth quietness, then who can make trouble?" It is complete—"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes"—Who can tell what will be the last drop of the briny flood. But it will be shed. "And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

It is future—"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." He wipes away many even now: but the days of their mourning