Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:3
“When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry
in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of
experience and service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect
the little meannesses in their nature.
Sorrow is God’s plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may
yield richer harvests. … Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly.
Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately, and introspect our motives and dispositions.
It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow
that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our
fellows. … So it is with many souls who indolently live on the outer edge of their own natures
until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within that were never hitherto suspected.
God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had
more sorrows than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all
nations.
For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him,”Joseph is a fruitful bough…by a well,
whose branches run over the wall” (Gen.49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul.
– The Heavenly Life
From Streams In The Desert Vol 1 by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman Zondervan Publishing House p. 22