This incident is the most unquestionable instance in the Bible of tears of love. No other feeling but love made Joseph weep. Sorrow there could not have been, for at that moment, on his side at least, it was all joy. Job says, as the great purpose of all that God did with him, "God maketh my heart soft." And it is David's constant experience, of which he speaks with pleasure, "My soul is even as a weaned child."
I. Tears of love are true evidences and evidences which can scarcely speak falsely.
II. Tears have much of the nature of sacrifice in them.
III. Though there are no tears in heaven, yet loving tears on earth come nearer than anything else in the world to the alleluias of the saints, for they are the outbursts of an irrepressible emotion.
IV. Tears of kindness act back again, and make the kindness from which they sprang. In order to have the heart soft enough for tears (1) you must lead a pure life; (2) you must feel that you are loved; (3) you must be subdued; (4) you must help yourself by action; (5) you must have pity.
J. Vaughan, Sermons,9th series, p. 77.
Reference: S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches,p. 211.