Departed grief.
"The days of thy mourning shall be ended.". What a glorious perspective there is in these words! In the fairest skies we are accustomed to expect some clouds to start up from the bed of the sea, or to come suddenly across the blue firmament heralded by some fleecy outrider. Nor do we expect perpetuity of joy in human life. Life is ever the subject of risk and danger. We never part without uncertainty as to meeting again; we never know but our day of glory may set in tears. There comes, too, in time, to us all that "last glance of love which becomes the sharpest pang of sorrow."
I. NIGHT. On earth our experience is often that of mourning. We are sorrowful.
1. Over the ravages of sin in ourselves and in the world.
2. Over the contrast between our ideals and our imperfections.
3. Over the influences of mutability and mortality.
4. Over the weakness of our faith and the coldness of our love to Christ.
II. MORNING. "Ended." Some things end for a time only. We are liable to them again. Fear returns. Disaffection of friends, awhile ago removed, recommences once more. Pain eased gives place to after-anguish. Friend after friend departs. After one victory over temptation comes another and a fiercer conflict. "Mourning ended." Why? God is our everlasting "Light;" for:
1. We are all righteous. (Isaiah 60:21.) The new nature is perfected in those who have the new name; there is no sorrow where there is no sin.
2. We are all at home. "They shall inherit the land for ever." At last the craving for rest is satisfied. At last what we have so long sought here we shall find there. All here mocks us with a sense of change, disruption, and death. There "thy sun shall no more go down."—W.M.S.