will endure through this world into the world to come, and on and upward
for ever and for ever.--That life is not an easy life to live; it is very
often not a pleasant life; very often a sad life--so sad that that is
true of it which the great poet says--


"Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who never in the midnight hours
Sat weeping on his lonely bed,
He knows you not, you Heavenly Powers."


You may say this is bad news. I do not believe it is. I believe it is
good news, and the very best of news: but if it is bad news, I cannot
help it. I did not make it so. God made it so. And God must know best.
God is love. And we are His children, and He loves us. And therefore
His ways with us must be good and loving ways, and any news about them
must be good news, and a gospel, though we cannot see it so at first.

In any case, if it is so, it is better to remember that it is so. And
Lent, and Passion Week, and Good Friday are meant to put us in mind of it
year by year, because we are all of us only too ready to forget it, and
shut our eyes to it. Lent and Passion Week, I say, are meant to put us
in mind. And the preacher is bound to put you in mind of it now and
then. He is bound, not too often perhaps, lest he should discourage
young hearts, but now and then, to put you in mind of the old Greek
proverb, the very words of which St. Paul uses in the text, that ta
pa??æata æa??æata--sorrows are lessons; and that the most truly pitiable
people often are those who have no sorrows, and ask for no man's pity.