^ Look through life, and do you not find that the great aim of men is to forget and go out of themselves ? What means the longing to be a child again ? "What means the gloom only deepened by the fiash of pleasure ? Whence so often springs the desire
To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to ?
What means the temptation to suicide ? Do not men feel in their inmost hearts that to live in themselves and for themselves — to be bound by the self -life — is misery? For they cannot escape from the guilty self of past years, and dare not face it when it rises from its tomb. Now, emancipation from the tyranny of self, freedom from the memories of the past, is reached by the spiritual man. At the cross of Christ the burden of the past falls, for at the cross he yields himself. There the love of the crucified Lord subdues his nature, and the new Divine life enters, purifying the past, and filling the soul with heavenly energies.
^ The fact of self-surrender may give rise to a joy that can deepen even in the midst of sorrow, for its secret consists in calm contentedness to be what God wills. Is it not a joy deep and unspeakable to feel we are the willing instruments of the Eternal will ; that the Eternal purpose is being wrought out through us ? Has not this conviction irradiated the darkness of dungeons, and filled with unspeakable peace the hearts of persecuted and suffering men in all ages ? Has it not nerved the martyrs for their last agonies, and strengthened them while the fire of the scaffold did its work ? And was it not from this consciousness of fulfilling the will of God that the Great Sufferer gathered strength for His own unspeakable woe, as in the midst of His agony He cried, " Not my will, but thine, be done ? " ^
1 E. L. HuU. DEUT.-ESTH. — 33
514 THE STRENGTH OF JOY
He touched her hands and the fever left her;
Oh ! we need His touch on our fevered hands ; The cool, still touch of the Man of Sorrows,
Who knows us and loves us, and understands.
It may be the fever of pain and anger, When the wounded spirit is hard to bear,
And only the Lord can draw forth the arrows Left carelessly, cruelly, rankling there.
Whatever the fever. His touch can heal it, Whatever the tempest. His voice can still;
There is only joy as we seek His pleasure, There is only rest as we chose His will,
(2) It is the joy of fellowship with the Father. — All profound gladness springs from sympathy with a spirit, or a truth, higher than ourselves. Why do our hearts bound on spring mornings with the joy of nature ? Why does the beauty of the summer evening calm us ? Why do we feel a glory and a joy as we tread the mountain-sides ? Why do we feel a deepening peace as wc walk amid the splendours of the golden autumn ? Is it not because we realize the presence of a spirit of beauty surrounding us, and inspiring us with an emotion which no words can describe ? Or why is it that when a truth breaks in upon us through clouds of doubt, and a clear vision of its beauty is gained after long and fruitless searching, we feel a thrill of joy deep and unspeakable ? Have we not, after communion with some greater soul, felt our own darkness dissipated, and our own isolation broken down ? In that hour has not the touch of a greater Spirit made us feel nobler, stronger, wiser ? And if this is true of earthly communion, must it not be supremely true when we realize the fellowship of God as our Father ?
^ " In all the great sea of ocean," said Serapion, when he had told the story of their wandering, " no such Earthly Paradise have we seen as this dear Abbey of our own ! "
" Dear brethren," said the Abbot, " the seven years of your seeking have not been wasted if you have truly learned so much. Far from home I have never gone, but many things have come to me. To be ever, and to be tranquilly, and to be joyously, and to be strenuously, and to be thankfully and humbly at one with the blessed will of God — that is the Heavenly Paradise ; and each of
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us, by God's grace, may have that within him. And whoso hath within him the Heavenly Paradise hath here and now, and at all times and in every place, the true Earthly Paradise round about him.^
ii. How do we obtain this Joy?
1. The joy of the Lord is the personal gift of God the Holy Ghost dwelling within the soul. We cannot force ourselves into joy by the power of the most earnest resolution ; nor can we argue ourselves or others into joy by the logical application of sound and Scriptural principles. We may have a perfectly correct system of tru.th, but along with it a joyless heart. It is not a thing which follows necessarily or mechanically from certain principles or certain acts; it is a Divine gift, like life itself, and is the result of the personal work of the Holy Ghost. It is His office " to speak peace unto his people," and to " fill you with all joy and peace in believing." So when David had lost his joy, and was pleading with God for its recovery, he prayed, " Make me to hear joy a,nd gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice," and, "Eestore unto me the joy of thy salvation: and uphold me with a free spirit."