I saw him across the dingy street,
A little old cobbler, lame, with a hump,
Yet his whistle came to me clear and sweet As he stitched away at a dancing-pump.
Well, some of us limp while others dance;
There's none of life's pleasures without alloy. Let us thank Heaven, then, for the chance
To whistle, while mending the shoes of joy.
3. We thank God not only for the joy of our creation and preservation, and of all the blessings of this life, but " above all for His inestimable love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory." Here in the opening of the Kingdom of heaven to all believers ; here in the magnificent certainty of our soul's salvation ; here in the blessed fact of Christ's sympathy and companionship ; in the joy of worship ; in the rapture of prayer and of the Holy Communion ; here in the anticipation of the unrevealed glory of heaven and of the final victory of light over darkness, of good over evil — here we have the highest proof of all that it is indeed God's will that we should be happy, and as we learn to grasp and realize this great truth, and to build all our hopes for time and for eternity upon His love and faithfulness, we learn, too, to say from the depths of our full hearts, " The joy of the Lord is our strength."
^ The Jewish system enters into the history of the Christian revelation; a system which was abolished, not because it came not at all from God, or was unworthy of Him, but because in the Gospel its truths have been perfectly revealed, its motives purified and exalted, and its imperfections corrected and supplied. One thing that strikes a careful reader of the Bible is that, in itself and in its application to the men who received it, the Jewish system was in the main a festal, joyous service. We, with our
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Christian sympathies and fuller spiritual sensitiveness, read into the Jewish law — as we read into nature — a gloom and heaviness of which its own subjects were scarcely, if at all, conscious. Its restrictions were for the welfare of the people and added comfort to their life ; its festivals were more numerous than its fasts ; the greater part of its sacrifices were not destroyed as forbidden things, but eaten gratefully and gladly by the worshippers.^
Hark ! Hark ! the joyous lark
Greets the dewy dawn of May; Hardly has he time to mark
The quivering eyelid of the day, Ere he springs, with fluttering wings,
In the rapture of the sight; Ever soaring as he sings,
Till he lose himself in light.
Heart, heart, how slow thou art
With thy morning hymn of praise! Ah ! can love no joy impart,
Though it compass all thy ways? Why sad amid the glad
Sunshine which is God's and thine? O the bliss that may be had,
Lost in thoughts of love divine!
Why, why sit and sigh,
Moping o'er thy former sin, With the gates of glory nigh
Free for thee to enter in? O rejoice with heart and voice,
Like the bird upon the wing; They who in the Lord rejoice
Songs of Heaven to earth shall bring.^
4. And then, last of all, we find occasions for joy in the spiritual life. Speaking doctrinally, joy is a " fruit of the Spirit," and a direct result of the Gospel. " Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." God intended to give to the penitent the joy of pardon ; to the defiled the joy of holiness ; to the feeble the joy of strength. God intended by
' A. Mackennal.
* Walter C. Smith, Thovghts and Fancies for Sunday Evenings, 14.
522 THE STRENGTH OF JOY
His promises to lift up our hearts in exultation ; and therefore He sent His Son for our acceptance. And Christian history and experience confirm the testimony. It is impossible for any one to study the writings of the Apostle Paul, and not see how buoyant was his spirit. His soul was set in harmony by his faith in Christ, and the joyous impulse fills him. It breaks out in thankful remembrance of his salvation ; plays in many a stroke of humour when he makes merry with his infirmities or banters those whom he would wean from follies and prejudices ; it lends a glow to his affections, and broadens his heart in world-wide love. And it is ever thus. In proportion as a man has the spirit of Christ's sacrifice, he will anticipate Christ's triumph, and be filled with Christ's joy. Strong Christians are always gladsome men ; they find inspiration in their mission, bliss in their work. The voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving is in their tabernacles ; they " rejoice in the Lord alway " ; they *' rejoice with them that do rejoice." And in this they are but manifesting the will of God ; giving full play and scope to the spirit of their Father who dwelleth in them.
(1) Joy in the Lord is to be ChristliJce. — And if the joy is Christlike it will move about two things — sublimities and sim- plicities. Our Lord's joy was found among the sublimities ; in communion with the Highest. Those withdrawals from the crowd, those quiet seasons spent upon the mountain-side, those retirements into lonely places were seasons of joyful intercourse with the Father. To have His joy is to share the ecstasy of this communion. But the joy is not only among the sublimities, it is also among the simplicities. What joy the Master found amid lowly things — in home-life, amid congenial friends ; in nature-life, amid flowers and birds and streams; in service-life, ministering to the poor and needy. If our joy is to be as the Master's joy, it, too, will shine and flame in spheres of common life.