Matthew 19:22

A YOUNG MAN’S SORROW

‘But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.’

Matthew 19:22

Part of the young man’s ‘sorrow’ was the discovery which he was making at that moment of his own heart. He had seen the object which he knew he ought to seek,—he had had set before him the price, the terms on which that object might be secured,—and he could not bear it. The heaviness of his heart was, though mixed, yet in the main a right heaviness. At least, there was some grace in it. True, as he ‘sorrowed,’ his steps were for awhile in the wrong direction, for ‘he went away,’—his back upon Jesus,—‘sorrowing.’ But can you doubt that he came back again?

I. The love of the world.—What about the heaviness of heart, and the difficulty which you may have? Many of you may be worldly; but yet, all the while, you are retaining, in the midst of your worldliness, many good feelings, and many pious desires. And what is the result? A certain sorrow. You see it a very dull, stern thing to become religious, and you shrink back to your societies, your excitements, your selfishness, and your sin, and you go away from the cross ‘sorrowfully.’

II. Anxiety about eternal life.—And yet, strange though it may seem, at the very same time that you ‘sorrow’ to give up the world, you cannot be happy to give up eternal life The worst sorrow of all is that in allowing this struggle, and letting the world get the victory, you have a continual gnawing sense in your own conscience that you are wrong; and is it any wonder that you ‘go away sorrowful’?

III. ‘Will ye also go away?’—And yet that ‘sorrow’ is a very good sign. It marks struggle; it marks desires; it marks life; it marks the Holy Ghost. The ‘going away’ is the dark part. Sorrow, with its face to Jesus, is a transient cloud that melts into sunshine, but sorrow that looks away from Jesus, goes on and on to gather blackness and blackness for ever! Let me speak to any one who has a good desire, and they are quenching it;—What are you going to do? will you go away? where? where? Do you really expect,—nay, in your heart of hearts, do you really wish to find satisfaction away from Christ? That is said of a rich man which is never in the Bible said of a poor man,—‘Not many rich,’—I never read ‘not many poor,’—‘not many rich.’ ‘How hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of God.’

The Rev. James Vaughan.