Fountains of Repentant Tears

Repentance is wrought by the Spirit of God.

But he works it in us by leading us to think upon the evil of sin.

Peter could not help weeping when he remembered his grievous fault.

Let us at this time—

I. STUDY PETER’S CASE, AND USE IT FOR OUR OWN INSTRUCTION.

1. He considered that he had denied his Lord.

   • Have we never done the like?
   • This may be done in many ways.

2. He reflected upon the excellence of the Lord whom he had denied.

3. He remembered the position in which his Lord had placed him,—making him an apostle, and one of the first of them.

   • Have we not been placed in positions of trust?

4. He bethought him of the special fellowship which he had enjoyed. He and James and John had been most favored. Matthew 17:1–13; 26:36–46; Mark 5:37–43.

   • Have not we known joyous fellowship with our Lord?

5. He recollected that he had been solemnly forewarned by his Lord.

   • Have we not sinned against light and knowledge?

6. He recalled his own vows, pledges, and boasts. “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I”: verse 29.

   • Have we not broken very earnest declarations?

7. He thought upon the special circumstances of his Lord when he had so wickedly denied him.

   • Are there no aggravations in our case?

8. He revolved in his mind his repetitions of the offence, and those repetitions with added aggravations: his lie, his oath, etc.

   • We ought to dwell on each item of our transgressions, that we may be brought to a more thorough repentance of them.

II. STUDY OUR OWN LIVES, AND USE THE STUDY FOR OUR FURTHER HUMILIATION.

1. Think upon our transgressions while unregenerate.

2. Think upon our resistance of light, and conscience, and the Holy Spirit before we were overcome by divine grace.

3. Think upon our small progress in the divine life.

4. Think upon our backslidings and heart-wanderings.

5. Think upon our neglect of the souls of others.

6. Think upon our little communion with our Lord.

7. Think upon the little glory we are bringing to his great name.

8. Think upon our matchless obligations to his infinite love.

   • Each of these meditations is calculated to make us weep.

III. STUDY THE EFFECT OF THESE THOUGHTS UPON OUR OWN MINDS.

1. Can we think of these things without emotion?

   • This is possible; for many excuse their sin on the ground of their circumstances, their constitution, their company, their trade, their fate: they even lay the blame on Satan, or some other tempter. Certain hard hearts treat the matter with supreme indifference.
   • This is perilous. It is to be feared that such a man is not Peter, but Judas: not a fallen saint, but a son of perdition.

2. Are we moved by thoughts of these things?

   • There are other reflections which may move us far more.
   • Our Lord forgives us, and numbers us with his brethren.
   • He asks us if we love him, and he bids us feed his sheep.
   • Surely, when we dwell on these themes, it must be true of each of us—“When he thought thereon, he wept.”

Recollections

Peter’s recollection of what he had formerly heard was another occasion of his repentance. We do not sufficiently consider how much more we need recollection than information. We know a thousand things, but it is necessary that they should be kept alive in our hearts by a constant and vivid recollection. It is, therefore, extremely absurd and childish for people to say, “You tell me nothing but what I know.” I answer, you forget many things; and, therefore, it is necessary that line should be upon line, and precept upon precept. Peter, himself, afterwards said, in his Epistles, “I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them.” We are prone to forget what we do know; whereas we should consider that, whatever good thing we know is only so far good to us as it is remembered to purpose.—Richard Cecil.

Peter falls dreadfully, but by repentance rises sweetly; a look of love from Christ melts him into tears. He knew that repentance was the key to the kingdom of grace. At once his faith was so great that he leaped, as it were, into a sea of waters to come to Christ; so now his repentance was so great that he leaped, as it were, into a sea of tears, for that he had gone from Christ. Some say that, after his sad fall, he was ever and anon weeping, and that his face was even furrowed with continual tears. He had no sooner taken in poison but he vomited it up again, before it got to the vitals; he had no sooner handled this serpent but he turned it into a rod, to scourge his soul with remorse for sinning against such clear light, and strong love, and sweet discoveries of the heart of Christ to him.

Clement notes that Peter so repented that, all his life after, every night when he heard the rooster crow, he would fall upon his knees, and, weeping bitterly, would beg pardon for his sin. Ah! souls, you can easily sin as the saints, but can you repent with the saints? Many can sin with David and Peter, who cannot repent with David and Peter, and so must perish for ever.—Thomas Brooks.

Cowper describes the time when he reflected on the necessity of repentance. “I knew that many persons had spoken of shedding tears for sin; but when I asked myself, whether the time would ever come, when I should weep for mine, it seemed to me that a stone might sooner do it.… Not knowing that Christ was exalted to give repentance, I despaired of ever attaining it.” A friend came to his bedside, and declared to him the gospel. He insisted on the all-atoning efficacy of the blood of Jesus, and his righteousness for our justification. “While I heard this part of his discourse, and the Scriptures on which he founded it, my heart began to burn within me; my soul was pierced with a sense of my bitter ingratitude to so merciful a Savior; and those tears, which I thought impossible, burst forth freely.”—Cowper’s “Memoirs of his Early Life.”

Nothing will make the faces of God’s children more fair than for them to wash themselves every morning in their tears.—Samuel Clark.

The old Greeks thought that memory must be a source of torture in the next world, so they interposed between the two worlds the waters of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness; but believers in Christ want no river of oblivion on the borders of Elysium. Calvary is on this side, and that is enough.—Alexander Maclaren.