sakes is heaven on earth. To see Him as He is will be the heaven of
heaven, and before that Face, 'as the sun shining in His strength,'
all sorrows, difficulties, and mysteries will melt as morning mists.



SORROW TURNED INTO JOY

'Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament,
but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your
sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail
hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is
delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for
joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now, therefore,
have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall
rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.'-JOHN xvi. 20-22.

These words, to which we have come in the ordinary course of our
exposition, make an appropriate text for Easter Sunday. For their one
theme is the joy which began upon that day, and was continued in
increasing measure as the possession of Christ's servants after
Pentecost. Our Lord promises that the momentary sadness and pain
shall be turned into a swift and continual joy. He pledges His word
for that, and bids us believe it on His bare word. He illustrates it
by that tender and beautiful image which, in the pains and bliss of
motherhood, finds an analogy for the pains and bliss of the
disciples, inasmuch as, in both cases, pain leads directly to
blessedness in which it is forgotten. And He crowns His great
promises by explaining to us what is the deepest foundation of our
truest gladness, 'I will see you again,' and by declaring that such a