The Ministry of Joy to Grief
There shall be no night there.” — Rev. xxi, 25.
How, then, can there be a serving of the sorrowful? You tell me that heaven is a land of ministration. How can it be so if my heart is to have the joy of morning? Can joy minister to grief? Yes, joy alone can. It is not night that ministers to night; it is nightlessness. To meet the clouds of others I should myself be clear. If I have lost a child and my neighbour across the street has lost a child, the common experience does not itself make either of us helpful to the other. To be helpful to my neighbour it is not enough that I have passed into the same valley; I must have passed through. “Yea, though I walk through the valley” is a saying of deep significance. It is not the darkness that makes me a comforter; it is seeing the exit at the foot of the lane. It is being able to say, “/ have passed through; you will also.”
O Thou who art training me to be a ministering spirit, let me enter into Thy joy! Ere I go with
Thee into the wilderness, let me stand with Thee by the glad streams of Jordan; let me see the opened heavens and the descending dove! It was by the joy set before Thee that Thou didst bear my cross; how else shall I bear Thine I Thou hast said that Thy yoke of ministration is easy and its burden light; but to whom? To those who have found rest to their souls. Thou hast bidden me learn of Thee; and that is Thy experience. It was the gleam of Olivet that made possible Thy Calvary. In vain shall I seek my brother’s night if there is night in my own soul. In vain shall I stand by when he drinks the cup of sorrow, in vain shall I participate in his cup of sorrow, if I have not seen the sparkle in the bitter draught. Show me that sparkle, O Lord! Reveal to me the sunlight in the cup! I would not go forth to help the sad on the mere ground that I have myself been sad. I would see Thy crown in my own waters before I say to my brother, “Peace, be still.” Reveal to me Thy gold ere I go! Let me stand with Thee one hour on the mountain ere I descend to meet the valley! Let me catch the morning rays ere I confront the evening shadows! My heart will be a minister to the night when there is no night there.