Sorrow and its Consoler.
"This is nothing else but sorrow of heart."
I. SORROW OF HEART MAY CO-EXIST WITH EXTERNAL WELL-BEING. Nehemiah was healthy, honoured, rich, yet sad. So are many in similar circumstances. The sorrows of sympathy, patriotism, and piety, as Nehemiah's were; those of penitence or remorse; of wounded affection or disappointed confidence; those occasioned by family troubles, etc; may invade the hearts of the most prosperous. And it is well that they should. Prosperity without sorrow tends to moral ruin.
II. SORROW OF HEART IS GRACIOUSLY NOTICED AND ASSUAGED BY THE KING OF KINGS.
1. He observes the sorrowful heart. It will commonly reveal itself in the countenance; but if not, God sees it (Psalms 31:7; Psalms 38:9).
2. He delights to comfort the sorrowful heart. "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." He sent his Son "to heal the broken-hearted." The Spirit whom he sends is "the Comforter." By his providence, by the revelation he gives of his fatherly pity and the benevolent ends of affliction, by his assurances of favour and love, by his promises, by human sympathy and solace, he comforts now his children; and ultimately he will wipe all their tears away.
III. SORROW OF HEART SHOULD RECEIVE TENDER HUMAN SYMPATHY AND SUCCOUR. We should be sensitive to its signs, and prompt to feel with and for it, and to proffer consolation and relief. This course is—
1. Prompted by nature. To decline this duty is to do violence to ourselves. It is to "shut up our bowels of compassion" (1 John 3:17), unless, indeed, we are so far below the level of humanity as to have none.
2. Enjoined by religion. The law and the gospel coincide here.
3. Required by our relation to sufferers. The brotherhood of man to man, of Christian to Christian.
4. Enabled by our possession of the gospel. Which is a collection of cordials for all varieties of human sorrow. He who has this, though he has little besides, may be a comforter of many.
5. Illustrated by Divine example (see II.).
6. Enforced by the revelation of the last judgment (see Matthew 25:35-45; 1 John 4:17). Finally, there is sorrow coming on the impenitent which will receive no comfort from God, angel, or man (see Luke 16:24-26).