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The Godly Person Weeps!
(by Thomas Watson)
Christ calls His spouse His "dove" (Song 2:14).
The dove is a weeping creature. Grace dissolves
and liquefies the soul, causing a spiritual thaw.
The sorrow of the heart runs out at the eye.
A godly heart grieves that it is not more holy.
It troubles him that he falls short of the rule
and standard which God has set. "I should",
he says, "love the Lord with all my heart.
But how defective my love is! How far short
I come of what I should be, no, of what I
might have been!"
A godly man sometimes weeps out of the
sense of God's love. Gold is the finest and
most solid of all the metals, yet it is soonest
melted in the fire. Gracious hearts, which
are golden hearts, are the soonest melted
into tears by the fire of God's love.
I once knew a holy man, who was walking
in his garden and shedding plenty of tears
when a friend came on him accidentally
and asked him why he wept. He broke
forth into this passionate expression:
"Oh, the love of Christ, the love of Christ!"
Thus we have seen the cloud melted into
water by the sunbeams.
A godly person weeps because the sins he
commits are in some sense worse than the
sins of other men. The sin of a justified
person is very odious, because it is a sin
of unkindness.
Peter's denying of Christ was a sin against love.
Christ had enrolled him among the apostles.
He had taken him up into the Mount and
shown him the glory of heaven in a vision.
Yet after all this mercy, it was base
ingratitude that he should deny Christ.
This made him go out and "weep bitterly."
He baptized himself, as it were, in his own tears.
The sins of the godly go nearest to God's heart.
The sins of the wicked anger the Lord.
The godly man's sins grieve Him.
The sins of the wicked pierce Christ's side.
The sins of the godly wound his heart.
The unkindness of a spouse goes
nearest to the heart of her husband.
How far from being godly are those who
scarcely ever shed a tear for sin! If they
lose a near relation, they weep, but
though they are in danger of losing God
and their souls, they do not weep. How
few know what it is to be in an agony
for sin or what a broken heart means!
Their eyes are not like the "fishpools in
Heshbon", full of water (Song 7:4), but
rather like the mountains of Gilboa, which
had no dew upon them (2 Sam. 1:21).
Others, if they sometimes shed a tear,
are still never the better. They go on in
wickedness, and do not drown their sins
in their tears. Let us strive for this divine
characteristic: to be weepers.
This is "a repentance not to be repented of"
(2 Cor. 7:10). It is reported of Mr. Bradford, the
martyr, the he was of a melting spirit; he
seldom sat down to his meal but some tears
trickled down his cheeks.
There are two lavers to wash away sin:
blood and tears. The blood of Christ washes
away the guilt of sin; tears wash away the filth.
Repenting tears are precious.
God puts them in His bottle (Psalm. 56:8).
Repenting tears are beautifying.
A tear in the eye adorns more than a ring of
the finger. Oil makes the face shine. (Ps. 104:15).
Repenting tears make the heart shine.
Repenting tears are comforting.
A sinner's mirth turns to melancholy.
A saint's mourning turns to music.
Repentance may be compared to myrrh,
which though it is bitter to the taste,
is comforting to the spirits.
Repentance may be bitter to the fleshy part,
but, it is most refreshing to the spiritual.
Wax that melts is fit for the seal. A melting
soul is fit to take the stamp of all heavenly
blessing. Let us give Christ the water of our
tears and He will give us the wine of His Blood!
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