Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Pious joy enjoined in the scriptures As the writer is addressing principally professing Christians, it is proper to inquire of them, if they have ever considered the numerous calls and commands from Scripture to the exercise of pious joy. It must have occurred to every reader of the Bible, how often this duty is inculcated; and it must have rather puzzled him to find among all his Christian acquaintance so partial a compliance. In its very name the piety of the gospel is "good tidings of great joy." All its promises and prospects are gladdening to the soul. Every feature is radiant with heavens brightness. The highly figurative descriptions of it given us in Scripture, all represent its joyous tendency. It is a fountain opened for the way-worn and thirsty traveler; and mercy’s angel seems to stand at its brink, crying, "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!" Nor is this fountain unsealed merely to refresh the soul; it is also designed as a healing stream. Judah and Jerusalem are invited to come and wash away their pollution in its purifying flood. How strongly those figures speak of the joyous character of the gospel! Fully to appreciate them, we must go pitch our tent with the Arab in the desert, whose parched lips have just touched the long-sought stream; or creep with the half-decayed leper to the pool of Bethesda, where his foul disorder can be healed.

It is called "the day-spring from on high," than which no symbol could be more lovely or cheering. It is termed the "light to those who sit in darkness." It is the "opening of the prison doors to those who are bound." It is "life from the dead." It is "joy unspeakable and full of glory." How rich is the Scripture in imagery, setting forth the gladdening influence of piety! It is natural, then, to look for this effect wherever it is experienced; and it is no forced inference to say, that all these figures imply, if they do not enjoin the exercise of pious joy.

I have alluded to Paul as a fine specimen of the uniformly cheerful saint. I will join with him one whose experience was not perhaps so uniform; but whose pious joys rose occasionally, if not constantly, quite as high. I mean the Psalmist David. There may have been something in the temperament of David on which piety acted with a peculiar and impressive gracefulness. Judging from the account given us of his early life, we should very naturally conclude this to be the case. How lovely is his deportment when first introduced to the notice, and taken under the patronage of Saul! What strength of affection did he manifest towards Jonathan! He had evidently, too, a soul attuned to the contemplation of nature. He was trained amid her glorious works; and learned to sing, with a poet’s exultation, of her beauties and her wonders. But all these traits, which nature had so amply supplied and adjusted, were sanctified by piety, and were wholly enlisted in her service. From such a one, I admit, we might expect a more than ordinary amount of Christian cheerfulness. If we judge of his emotions by the devotional strains which he has written, we shall say that he excels all others in the rapturous and even sublime joy which, for the most part, he evinces. "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." "I will rejoice in your salvation." Nor was he satisfied with expressing in such elevated strains his own gladness of heart; but he calls upon others to join in this delightful work. "Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous; for praise is lovely for the upright." "Let those who love your name be joyful in you." "Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King." And when he has enlisted the voice and tongue of Zion’s children, he next invokes inanimate nature to unite in the general concert of praise. "Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and those who dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord."

It is true, a plaintive, and sometimes even a deeply desponding tone, is exhibited in the Psalms; but the general tenor is that of confidence and of joy. Even where, in some instances, the writer commences in a mournful strain, before his song is ended the sentiment changes to one of heavenly rapture. With respect to David, it may then be said, he lived, for the most part, in a happy frame; and that his joy was derived from, and was connected with the love and service of God.

Other instances of a uniformly joyful frame, might be gathered from Scripture; but I would ask the reader to look at a few passages of the Bible, setting forth the duty of manifesting a cheerful happy temper, as the legitimate effect of true piety. The Scriptures are so full of exhortations of this nature, that I scarcely know where to select. In the book of Chronicles, Israel is commanded to "glory in God’s holy name;" and it is added, "Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord." In Deuteronomy it is said, "You shall rejoice before the Lord your God." The prophet Joel says, "You children of Zion, rejoice in the Lord." Paul has numerous exhortations to rejoicing. In closing his epistle to the Philippians, he says, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice!"

These examples and quotations make it plain, that the truly pious are not only authorized to be joyful, but are required, as the redeemed of the Lord, to manifest joy before the world. Everything in the visible universe calls the Christian to this duty. Nature, by audible and inaudible strains, should provoke us to the manifestation of our joy. The flower which has slept beneath the dews of the night, lifts up its head, and seems to smile as the sun-beam of morning falls upon it. The sky is bright and joyous, after the dark cloud has rolled away; and countless voices come to us from earth and air, whose cheerful accents tell us, that if their joy is transient, it is nevertheless real.

Now shall the Christian, whose soul has wept sweeter tears than the dews of the night, and has been enlivened by a brighter beam than the morning ray, refuse to look glad? Shall he, from whose prospects the dark cloud of God’s anger has passed away forever, give no sign of joyfulness; and while listening with the ear of faith to the melodies of heaven, in which he hopes soon to unite, refuse to begin the hallelujahs on this side of his eternal rest? Shall the power of God awaken in the natural world such strains of joy; and shall this great mercy be less influential in filling the soul, which it has blessed, with the praises of its God?