Living water from hidden springs.
"Passing … a well." "The valley of Baca," i.e. of weeping, or lamentation. The image is of a company of pilgrims towards the holy city, whose way lies through a desolate, sterile valley. In that "dry and thirsty land" many a traveller has fainted with thirst. On those rugged rocks many a feeble or heedless foot has slipped, many a pilgrim fallen. But if "the blessings of heaven above" and "the precious things of the earth" be denied, there is yet "the blessing of the deep that worketh under." The pilgrims gird their loins, pitch their tents, and dig deep. Cool treasures of living water from hidden springs reward their toil. At morning they go on their way with a new song of praise, and leave a blessing for those who follow.
I. OUR WAY, AS PILGRIMS TO THE BETTER LAND, LIES THROUGH THE VALLEY OF TEARS. Sometimes, thoughtlessly or bitterly (in either case ungratefully), this name is applied to human life as a whole. Untrue and unreasonable. If life has its dangers and deserts, weary wastes, gloomy gorges, perilous passages, it has also breezy sunny uplands, smiling valleys, fields of happy fruitful labour, quiet resting places, cheered by bright hopes, warm affections, pleasant memories. Many a light-hearted company marches for leagues with unbroken ranks. It is as untrue that life is all sorrow, as that it is all joy. But the valley of weeping has to be crossed. There are lives whose whole course is within its shadow. The happiest path runs so near its border that at any moment we may enter it; perhaps soon to emerge; perhaps not till the pilgrimage be ended. No unfrequented spot. If we take account of bleeding or broken hearts and shadowed hair all over the world—a life failing with each sound—we shall acknowledge that in this wide sense earth may not untruly be called "the valley of tears."
II. HIDDEN WELL SPRINGS OF COMFORT AND BLESSING are provided by God for his children when passing through the valley of weeping. Comfort under trial, blessing through trial, hope beyond trial.
1. Sorrow for sin is the condition of the joy of forgiveness (Matthew 5:4). Violent emotion is not necessary; but a true sense of the guilt, as well as evil, of sin. Peace with God precedes peace in God. The deeper the sorrow, the sweeter the joy. Shallow views of sin are one of the chief dangers of our day; begetting shallow views of atonement, and of the relation of Christ's death to our sins and "the sin of the world" (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2).
2. God's presence and love, our Saviour's sympathy, the power of the Holy Spirit as "the Comforter," are felt in trouble as at no other time. In the night the stars shine (Psalms 46:1). To bear trouble patiently is the part of a wise brave man, Christian or not; but comfort in trouble is the exclusive privilege of the Christian.
3. The discipline of sorrow produces rich fruits—stronger faith, deeper humility, a new sense of the value of prayer and of the preciousness of God's promises; patience, courage, detachment from the world, power to sympathize (James 1:2, James 1:3; 1 Peter 1:6, 1 Peter 1:7; Hebrews 12:10; Psalms 119:67, Psalms 119:71).
4. "We are saved by hope." (Romans 8:24.) No grief so heavy as despair. None intolerable if hope shines ahead. A hidden well (Colossians 3:3), but whose streams can refresh the dreariest, weariest stages of pilgrimage (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Christ's atonement lifts from our heart the burden of the past. His sympathy and mediation bring every moment of the present into living happy relation to God. But his resurrection and ascension bind our own earthly life to the glorious immortal future (John 14:1-3, John 14:19; Hebrews 6:19).