When we make a profession of our faith in Christ, we are not to drape
our faces in gloom, but rather to light our hearts with a purer joy than
we ever knew before; and yet we must put away all unseemly levity. “I
said of laughter, it is mad.” I said it, too, in the day of the gladness
of my heart. The madman’s frolics, the drunkard’s boisterous
mirth–these compare not with the serene pleasure of our princely
expectations. Walk as those who are looking for the coming of the Son of
Man, hearing this voice in your ears, “What manner or person ought ye to
be in all holy conversation and godliness?”