("I will also vex the hearts of many peoples")
Vexation of heart.
I. THE GREATEST DISTRESS IS THAT WHICH IS CAUSED BY VEXATION OF HEART. Terrible reverses of fortune may be endured, and the millionaire may become a beggar, and yet the deepest sorrows may not be reached; for there are men who have proved themselves superior to their circumstances, and who have been able to look with a serene countenance on the wreck of their fortunes, because they have been possessed of interior sources of happiness. Bodily sickness which produces acute physical pain does not induce the greatest real sufferings. Not only have martyrs learnt to triumph at the stake, but patient, obscure sufferers have acquired peace and even joy while their bodies have been racked with torment. But when the heart is sore vexed the most terrible Sorrow is felt. This may be endured amid external circumstances of affluence, and then those circumstances appear but as gilded vanities, mocking the bitter grief that lurks within. We live in our hearts, and if our hears be sore and sorrowful, our lives are darkened with a distress that no outer comforts can cheer.
II. VEXATION OF HEART SPRINGS ESPECIALLY FROM LOSS AND DISAPPOINTMENT. We accustom ourselves to the usual, and do not grieve greatly over what we never had and never expected to possess. No man is much distressed at the thought that he is not a prince of the archangels. The simple peasant does not grieve because he is not the owner of a kingdom, as Alexander is said to have grieved because he could find no new worlds to conquer. The childless wife is not desolate as the mother whose baby has been snatched from her. The loss of the loved and the disappointment of cherished hopes are the greatest sources of vexation of heart. Now, we have all lost a great inheritance, we have missed our high Divine vocation. The sorrow of failure is at the root of the worst heartache. The old weary world groans without perceiving the cause of its anguish. Clearly something is wrong, for a good Creator would not have made a world for sorrow and disappointment. The great disillusion which at some time comes to every sanguine soul, and turns May into November, must have a cause. The world has suffered a great loss; it has met with a great disappointment. The first step is to have the courage to admit the fact, and not to be living in the optimism which the first touch of reality proves to be but a dream. The next is to discover the cause and to see that the loss is the loss of God, and the failure sin.
III. CHRIST HAS COME TO CURE VEXATION OF HEART. He may not help us to retrieve broken fortunes. "To the poor the gospel is preached"—and yet they remain poor; he may not now restore health as he did during his earthly ministry. But he aims at the deepest trouble-he cures vexation of heart. To the laboring and heavy laden he gives rest. It is not his will that his people should go mourning all their days. The dim and faded life may be brightened and gladdened by the love of the great Savior. This is possible because Christ goes to the seat of the trouble, whereas most earthly comforters have only tried to smooth away the superficial symptoms. He finds the lost God. He restores man to his missed destiny. He slays the sin that is the worm at the root of the world's life. He brings the heart-joy of life eternal in fellowship with God.