LECTURE 19
OF THE TWO TYPES OF SORROWS (GODLY AND WORLDLY) AND WHAT THEY WORK IN US.
There is no way we humans can do away with sorrow as we take our journey here below. We shall have them and continue to have them as long as we remain in this body. Until that appointed time when God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes and eliminate all the sorrows of his saints, sorrow shall continue to be with us. What do I mean by that? I mean we shall see and continue to see disappointments, heartbreaks, demises, betrayals etc. They will intercept our lives here and will continue to interfere as long as we take our journey here below.
We cannot say that they are entirely bad in themselves because some are indeed worthy of being. The wisest of men so affirms this when he says, “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” Inasmuch as they are not bad in themselves, the circumstances that drives us to them cannot be disregarded as they are worthy of some consideration..
The man, for example, who is driven to sorrow over the loss of his only daughter is not to be compared to that fellow who weeps and laments over a torn raiment. Though the first may be driven by tender memories of the departed, the latter only seems to be led by his care and want for ‘things’ which ought not to be so. Another example is that adulterous husband who is driven to sorrow by the sermon of the preacher and thereby laments all his marital infidelity. We may reckon this man as more honourable than his other fellow who is driven to uncontrollable tears because his mistress has left him for another man. The former, obviously, traces back his path to God whilst the latter adds to his folly, and he does it in a legendary fashion. We may stump his tears as vain and useless, except in the case where they drive him into the hands of Him who graciously grants succor to all.
The Holy Scriptures basically makes mention of two types of sorrows; godly and worldly. The one is pleasant and the other unpleasant. The one, godly and the other worldly. These two sorrows have great semblances but they are strangely dissimilar in the works they produce at the very end. We can only talk of their likenesses as superficial and their differences as fundamental in that they can only be diagnosed at the last bar; the work they produce in mortal hearts.
The one works ‘repentance to salvation never to be regretted’ whilst the other ‘works or produces death’ by fueling the adamic ego to unholy rage. For these two types of sorrow, a perfect differentiation could only be made by evaluating their closing argument at the very last tribunal.
So, though a man’s sorrow may be justified with purpose and reason, we may not classify it as godly except it works repentance unto salvation at the end.
Recall that both Judas and Peter were driven to sorrow after having betrayed Jesus; but Judas went from thence to hang himself whilst Peter fought on to become a great Apostle of the faith. Despite the fact that they were both driven to sorrow by a similar substantive matter, which is betraying the Messiah, the first committed murder thereby whilst the latter used that as occasion to anchor his ‘petros’.
Another incident is the case where a couple were bereaved of a child, and were thus moved unto bitter weeping. The one was driven thence unto liquor and murmurings whilst the other had his feeble knees bowed before the ‘The Comforter’, desperately seeking solace in Him. Despite the fact that they were both moved unto sorrow over a common matter, they were each driven unto different agendas.
Two things therefore remain to be said of sorrows. The first is what drives us unto them and the second is what they in turn drive us unto. Always regardless of the first, it is the very last that will pass it as either godly or wordly. That is to say, the matters that drives us unto sorrow is not as important as how we are driven thence. So even in the case of the man who is driven to sorrow over his lewd mistress, his tears may be reverred by the heavens as sacred should he thence be driven to seek solace in the hands of God and thereby secure salvation for his soul.
The man who is made sorrowful after a godly manner will find great reconciliation with the God of Abraham though he may be the worst of all sinners. But he who is made sorrowful after a worldly fashion, only resurrects his ego and fans the adamic ardor into glitzy flames.
See how Essau in losing his blessing to his brother, Jacob, became sorrowful and by that thought to slay him. His sorrows did work ‘death’ in him as he thought to destroy. This kind of sorrow profits us not. It only destroys. It is vain and useless to sorrow after such a manner?
Usually, the sorrows that dawn upon us as a result of our lack or insufficiency in ‘things’ are selfish in themselves since they produce carnal yearnings. Why should men sorrow after crafted toys and accessories made with straws and sticks? Of a truth Tozer says, “man is a brilliant toy maker and ardent toy lover”. Indeed, our love for toys and trifles is just so ridiculous.
The man who is sorrowful because he has no bread or clothes is only hurting himself for such were the sorrows of the Israelites. Most of their deepest sorrows and grieves were because they had no bread or flesh etc. Their solemn cries were because they were not all together pleased and gratified. Of which tears and sorrows the Lord declared, “they have contaminated my altars with their tears.”
Concluding on this particular lecture, I may caution that we carefully study and diagnose the sorrow with which you sorrow. But trust me on this that you woldn’t love to pollute the altars of ‘Judah’s Lion’ with your anguish.
HE WHITE ISLAND
By Robert Herrick
In this world, (the Isle of Dreams),
While we sit by sorrow's streams,
Tears and terrors are our themes
Reciting:
But when once from hence we fly,
More and more approaching nigh
Unto young Eternity
Uniting:
In that whiter Island, where
Things are evermore sincere;
Candour here, and lustre there
Delighting:
There no monstrous fancies shall
Out of Hell an horror call,
To create (or cause at all)
Affrighting.
There in calm and cooling sleep
We our eyes shall never steep;
But eternal watch shall keep,
Attending
Pleasures, such as shall pursue
Me immortalized, and you;
And fresh joys, as never too
Have ending.
LONGING
By George Herbert
With sick and famish'd eyes,
With doubling knees, and weary bones,
To Thee my cries,
To Thee my groans,
To Thee my sighs, my tears ascend:
No end?
My throat, my soul is hoarse;
My heart is wither'd like a ground
Which Thou dost curse;
My thoughts turn round,
And make me giddy: LORD, I fall,
Yet call.
Bowels of pity, hear;
LORD of my soul, love of my mind,
Bow down Thine ear;
Let not the wind
Scatter my words, and in the same
Thy name.
Look on my sorrows round;
Mark well my furnace. O, what flames,
What heats abound!
What griefs, what shames!
Consider, LORD; LORD, bow thine ear,
And hear!
LORD JESU, Thou didst bow
Thy dying head upon the tree;
O, be not now
More dead to me.
LORD, hear. Shall He that made the ear
Not hear?
To Thee help appertains:
Hast Thou left all things to their course,
And laid the reins
Upon the horse?
Is all lock'd? hath a sinner's plea
No key?
Thou tarriest, while I die,
And fall to nothing: Thou dost reign,
And rule on high,
While I remain
In bitter grief; yet am I styled
Thy child.
My Love, my Sweetness, hear:
By these Thy feet, at which my heart
Lies all the year,
Pluck out Thy dart,
And heal my troubled breast, which cries,
Which dies.