Chapter 6

Chapter 6 The foundation of pious joy

Every effect has its cause; and this principle is as applicable to the emotions of the soul as to the phenomena of the material world. If there be exercised a pious joy, it must have some source or origin. The apostle Paul has referred it to the true and legitimate cause: he says, "Rejoice in the Lord." The foundation, then, of pious joy, is GOD, the infinite source of all true felicity. The numerous passages of Scripture already cited, especially those from the Psalms, evince the same truth. "Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness."

Pious joy is not confined to the redeemed children of Adam, but is felt and manifested by all the holy. The good angels are no less exultant than the ransomed, who are associated with them in singing the hallelujahs of heaven. But the source of this gladness, both among angels and men, is the same. It is the great and glorious God. When Adam was created, and placed a pure being in the garden of Eden, we may suppose, that, as one of his first acts would be praise, so one of his first emotions would be pious joy. But if we imagine that his joy came simply, or principally, from the fragrant beauties which surrounded him, we are greatly mistaken. Such a conception would not be in harmony with the character of God his Creator, nor with the exalted and unsullied character of Adam. His outward circumstances enhanced, doubtless, his happiness; but this effect they had as media, to trace the wisdom and goodness of God. We should infer, from the Scripture account of our first parents, that, while their occupation was to dress and to keep in order this earthly paradise, their purest and noblest satisfaction consisted in intimate communion with God. Earth was adapted to the compound nature of man, but varying not from heaven in the essentials of its happiness, nor obstructing as now, a free and familiar communion with Jehovah.

Hence, we find the Almighty conversing with Adam, as one converses with his friend, giving out His commands, promising His favors, and affording the blissful light of His countenance. "In the cool of the day," by some palpable manifestation, He made himself known to his new-created subjects, and filled their souls with "joy unspeakable." It was doubtless to this glad hour that our first parents daily looked with most delightful anticipations; and in it, felt their purest rapture. But Eden was no longer bright nor beautiful when that hour became a season of dread; and the guilty pair shrunk from the well-known footsteps of their Creator. Their greatest happiness before their fall was in God; and their keenest misery after it, was, that they had "forsaken the fountain of living waters." Milton has put into the mouth of our maternal progenitor a very beautiful and touching lamentation over her lost paradise. The poet, in this, has spoken the voice of nature; but it is, alas! the voice of fallen nature, which is prone to be more touched by a deprivation of the gift, than by any deep sense of the forfeited favor of the great Giver.

Since that sad event, which drove man away from his Maker, we have been striving to substitute some other foundation of felicity; but never can true and substantial joy revisit the soul, until that soul regains its primitive portion, and finds its all in GOD. The remedial system, which the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ presents, has in view this very object, namely, the restoration of the Divine favor, whereby a permanent foundation is laid for human felicity. It is true, this blessed gospel does not propose to replant literally another Eden, and to embower its believers among its amaranthine shades; but it does what is infinitely better; it places under the soul the original foundation of its joy; and, by reclaiming it to God, gives it the promise and the prospect of a brighter paradise above. And now, we may walk again with our Maker "in the cool of the day"—in the evening hour of meditation; or at any time which the soul may choose, and feel as real, if not as exuberant a joy, as glowed in the hearts of Eden’s unfallen occupants. We may now cast our eyes over the Creator’s works, which, if disrobed of primeval loveliness, are still His works, and retain the signature of His hand in all their outspread beauties and sublimities. We may survey these wonders, and rejoice in them, as the manifest indications of His Godhead. We are invited to come back from our unsatisfied wanderings, and to rebuild on the original foundation of all true joy and felicity.

Ever since Adam was cast out of the consecrated garden, man has not known where to go for this pure and substantial joy. How many streams have been tasted, in the hope of finding it! How many countries have been explored! What a variety of pleasures have been pursued! But man is "driven out from the presence of God." This is the true secret of all his cares and sorrows. This explains the failure of his ten thousand experiments. Until he gets back to the presence of his God, he has no right to rejoice; and he has, in fact, no true foundation for joy. But, oh what glad tidings are these which fall on the ear! Methinks I hear again the renewed congratulations of the angel band, assuring us that "the second Adam, the Lord from heaven," has come to conduct us back to our forfeited paradise; or rather to re-open the celestial Eden, and acquire for us a title to its imperishable glories. Now God will dwell again on earth, and the soul may find in Him the broad foundation of peace and happiness. And who is this that turns aside the cherubic sword, and allows us to pluck the immortal fruits, and breathe once more the atmosphere of heaven? To whom are we so deeply indebted for the restoration of our joy? Ah, reader, if you have never known this Friend of the helpless, this Almighty Savior, you cannot know what pure and perfect pleasure is! You have not yet touched the vital spring of human felicity. But if you know this Savior, and feel him to be precious to your soul, you have found your way to the well-spring of life, and can "rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

"Dearer, far dearer to my heart, Than all the joys that earth can give; From fame, from health, from friends I’d part, Beneath his countenance to live."